Rinoa
by DevilMayCare
Summary: Novelisation of the game from Rinoa's point of view, with some additions to the original story. Here's what REALLY happened. Please RR
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is an unusual novelisation of part of Final Fantasy VIII from Rinoa's POV, with asides from the perspectives of different characters and Rinoa's dreams and memories. I'm not 100 loyal to the in-game events and dialogue, and the focus is on the story and not the action segments. Hope you enjoy!

Rinoa - I

Chapter 1

Gentle waves wash up on a beach, where a girl in a blue bathing suit is lounging on a towel under the warm Balamb sun. Beachgoers trudge back and forth through the sand carrying books and sunscreen; mothers call to children playing in the water from under their colorful umbrellas, and a lifeguard sits idly on the roof of a shack flying the Balamb Island flag and a triangular yellow flag signaling low danger of riptides. The girl is young and looks relaxed, her black hair spread out around her head, and one arm draped over her eyes to shield them from the sun.

Another girl, 18 or so, with dark skin, curly hair, and a one-piece orange bathing suit comes running up from the shore, shaking water out of her curls and sits beside her.

"Rinoa, are you going to come swim?"

Without moving her arm, Rinoa shakes her head, no.

"Are you gonna to lie around all day and cook like a lobster?"

Rinoa nods. The dark-skinned girl, whose name is Ari, sighs in exasperation and flops down on the sand. She is Rinoa's cousin and senior by two years.

"I know what you're thinking about." Ari says matter-of-factly.

Rinoa, too comfortable to take the bate, waves a limp hand in response. Ari rolls onto her stomach.

"You're thinking about the guy from garden, right?"

At last, Rinoa moves the arm shielding her eyes and turns her head to face her cousin.

"Kind of." she admits, her dark eyes luminous. "I was kind of thinking I might call him. Tonight."

Balamb Garden, or 'garden', is a military academy on the northern half of the island. One of three in the worldwide 'garden alliance', its most distinctive feature is its SeeD program, which trains and hires out some of the most distinguished and feared mercenaries in the world. Recruits for the SeeD program come mostly from Balamb's student population, but also from Galbaldia Garden, which also graduates future high-ranking officers of the Galbaldian army, and Trabia Garden whose other graduates go on to become tacticians, government agents, and instructors at the various gardens. Garden is actually a very young organization, having become operational remarkably quickly with the financial support of a mysterious 'garden master'. It's also unique in its use of para-magic-related spirits called avatars, or guardian forces.

'The guy from garden' had met the two cousins the previous afternoon in a bar near the north entrance of the town. He had been accompanied by a young albino woman with an eye patch, and a very large black student, who was fascinated with Ari.

"Maybe you and Rajin could go out with us!" Rinoa teases.

"Yeah, and then your dad will join the 'Peaceful Galbaldian Resistance' network." Ari deadpans, rolling her eyes. "No, you go to dinner or something with him. I'll help dad in the hotel tonight."

The girls get up and, brushing the sand from their skin, wander up the beach to Noah Carraway's well-to-do hotel, where Rinoa is staying for the summer. In front of them, the little sea-side city of Balamb bakes in the sun. Seagulls drift over the houses, and residents stroll the sidewalks aimlessly. Balamb is so relaxed, especially in the summer, Rinoa thinks. It's nothing like her native Deling City, or even the busy, urban Timber where she's spent the last few years in boarding school.

Not that she minds the urban living. The exciting night life of Deling City is almost enough to make up for having to live with her father, General Carraway of the Galbaldian Army, while she's staying there. Few people would know her as Carraway's daughter without an introduction – she looks like her mother did in face and figure, and has adopted her last name, Heartilly. And Timber is like a second home, where her closest friends live, mostly members of Timber liberation factions. Timber has been under Galbaldian control for as long as any of them can remember.

Back in her hotel room, Rinoa flops down on her bed still wearing her swimsuit and a silver necklace she rarely takes off. She digs around in the drawer of her bedside table and pulls out a crumpled paper coaster bearing a phone number and another number below it scrawled in pen. Rinoa picks up the receiver on the phone next to her bed, then puts it back down, gets up, and paces to the other end of the room. Maybe she won't call the guy from garden tonight. She's barely spent an hour with him. She toys with the ring hanging on her necklace. Then she jumps back onto the bed, picks up the phone, and dials the number on the coaster. A cool female voice answers,

"Balamb Garden student office, this is Maureen speaking; how may I help you?"

"I…could I please speak to Seifer Almasy?" Rinoa asks.

"What is the ID number of the student you wish to contact?"

"Oh! Um…" Rinoa squints at the messy writing below the phone number "I.D. #4589702 Almasy" she reads.

"Thank you, please hold."

Soft jazz music plays. A few minutes pass. Rinoa is about to hang up when Seifer finally answers the phone.

"Hey Rinoa. 'Didn't think you were going to call."

A few hours later the two are drinking in the same bar they'd met in. Seifer is tall and blond, and wears an off-white trench coat. He's a student at Garden, due to take his second field exam to become a SeeD in the fall. He is explaining to Rinoa, with animated gestures, why he had failed the first one, a mission to help the rebels of the highly publicized Trabian civil war.

"So we're supposed to take down these Gayla things around the base – like, big stingrays that live in the snow – while the rest of the SeeD force actually fights the war. And it's taking forever to go through each one of them. Then my squad captain, some idiot hand-to-hand specialist, get this – _slips_ on an _ice sheet_ and knocks himself unconscious! So this other guy in my squad goes to take him into base and I'm left with this Gayla nest near the base, and I had this idea. See, the base keeps explosives, and I figure it'd be easy and save time…"

Seifer hadn't realized, in his eagerness to get into the main fight that blowing up the Gayla nest would displace a lot of snow, and it had to go somewhere. When the revived squad captain returned, he found Seifer staring at a small avalanche that had blocked off all the east entrances to the base.

Rinoa: I found Seifer more interesting than likeable when I first met him. The bartender refilled my tantal, indicating him across the room. He raised his glass to me, and just went back to talking with his friends, as though he didn't even plan on speaking to me after buying me a drink. He's absolutely self-assured, almost to the point of arrogance. But he can still laugh at himself. He can tell a story about his own stupid mistake. Not many people, male people in particular, are comfortable with that.

I didn't talk to him until his friend Rajin started trying to chat up Ari. She was pretty unresponsive, but he didn't seem to take the hint. He asked if she had an email address after about ten minutes of conversation, at which point Seifer's other friend, a short girl with gray hair and an eye-patch walked over and kicked him in the shin. She turned to Ari and apologized with one, harshly spoken "SORRY". She started to drag him away, but Seifer joined her and made a joke about Rajin having good taste but poor judgment. Rajin didn't seem particularly embarrassed.

We five talked for a little while, and the more I talked to Seifer the more I wanted to know about him. He, Rajin, and the girl, whose name was Fujin, made up the garden's disciplinary committee. Rajin and Seifer told anecdotes about their exploits with occasional one-word contributions from Fujin over the next hour or two. When they had to leave to get back to garden before the student curfew, Seifer slid his coaster over to me, and gave us both a curt wave on his way out. Though I never saw him write it, the coaster had his number on it.

As I got to know him a little better, I realized that for me, part of Seifer's appeal was his how completely unlike my father he was. My father always assumed he would not get anything he wanted without a fight, and so he came to every situation with aggressive resolve. In contrast, Seifer seemed sure he _would_ get what he wanted, and approached life with an assuming confidence. My father appeared to follow the regulations of the military, but would lie, cheat and deceive to meet his ends. Seifer broke rules for the sake of it, but took responsibility and integrity seriously. While my father valued proficiency and discipline, Seifer was more impressed with ambition and passion.

The two have dinner at a seafood restaurant, and then walk along the pier, looking at the water and enjoying the warm, salty air. He tells her about life as a student in garden. He has never met his parents, and doesn't remember living anywhere but the garden. She describes Deling City and Timber to him, and tells him about her father, and the rift between them. They just don't see eye-to-eye, she explains. Not in politics, not in anything.

"That's why I don't think I'm going back to Deling in September" she confides. "I'm done with school now; I have enough credit to graduate. I think… I'm going back to Timber."

Seifer nods "To be with your friends from the independence movements."

"Yeah, I mean, I spent all my vacations with Zachary's family anyway. His mom even suggested that I live with them; she knew what it was like at home. That was before her husband died though…"

"So you're going to join the uh…Forest Moogles?"

"_Owls_!" Rinoa laughs. "The Forest _Owls_. Yeah, I think so."

"And these Forest Fowls have weapons training too?"

"Owls!" she says loudly. Seifer pantomimes cleaning out an ear with one finger.

"No, most couldn't fight their way out of a bag; they organize protests, hand out leaflets, that sort of thing. I only learned to use a Blaster edge because of my father. He thinks I should 'be able to defend myself in an unpredictable and dangerous world.'" She mimics her father's stern demeanor, with her hands behind her back and her chest puffed out, gazing out across the water, as though it were an army awaiting her instructions.

"I'll bet he'll get a kick out of how you put it to use."

Rinoa laughed again. "I bet he will!" She sighs. "We won't be able to do much in a fair fight though. Against Galbaldian para-magic and weapons, resistance groups don't have a chance."

"It's too bad you don't have anyone with SeeD training. Kicking Galbaldian ass is a specialty of ours."

"Oh, you're so full of crap!"

"Touché!"

They stand and look out over the water for a minute. The sun is starting to sink below the horizon. Rinoa leans on the pier railing and feels the warm sea breeze on her face and neck.

"What's it like to junction?"

"A guardian force? I don't know. It's like…empowering. It's like having someone inside your mind. I mean, it's really controversial, using GF, since the junction is only, maybe 30 years old. I think SeeD is the only fighting force to use it. It lets you not just store magical energy, but use it to strengthen your mind and body. You can run faster, jump higher…it's almost like you think faster and more clearly too. Your endurance and reflexes are better…"

"It seems like everyone would be using them."

"You'd think so, but a GF is a lot of work. That's why most SeeD members only junction one. First you actually have to find one – they aren't monsters per say. They're like spirits or something. Some people call them "demi-gods". If it allows itself to be junctioned or if you weaken it to the point that it can't fight back, it becomes pure energy that can be stored in the human body until summoned, when it takes on its original form again. It's basically pure magical energy. It takes years to build up enough compatibility with a GF to make it worth using though. I guess that's why regular army recruits don't use them. Only mercenaries, who know they'll be fighting their whole lives…"

They stay out talking until almost one in the morning, and plan to meet the next weekend. Seifer would miss the students' curfew by several hours.

"Whatever" he dismisses the time. "I have an in with the gate keeper."

Rinoa walks him to the town entrance, and they exchange thanks and formalities that feel awkward in contrast to their easy familiarity throughout the evening. Seifer turns to head up the road leading back to garden, and Rinoa returns to her uncle's hotel in high spirits. Balamb hotel sits to the side of a curving cobbled road near the docks. It's rather upscale, and frequented by B-list celebrities vacationing on the sunny island. Rinoa passes through a revolving door into the comfortably furnished, well-lit lobby. A sleepy night receptionist greets her with a nod and Rinoa waves cheerfully to her as she crosses to the other end of the room and through the sliding glass door at the other end.

Ari and Noah Carraway's modest house sits behind the posh hotel. Winding among shrubbery and grass, a set of long pebbled steps leads to the front door. Rinoa fishes a key out from under the door mat and sneaks in. The house is dark and cold, but Rinoa feels warm and energized, and rather like dancing up the stairs.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Seifer's summer vacation is two months long, and includes summer classes in the morning. He spends his afternoons with Rinoa, and sometimes with Fujin, Rajin and Ari. The five frequent the bar they met in and a small comedy club in eastern Balamb. When Rinoa and Seifer are alone, they have dinner in the city's cheap seafood restaurants, go to outdoor concerts, visit garden, and wander the docks and beach, talking late at night.

When Rinoa tells Seifer about her nascent plans for the Forest Owls and Timber's liberation, he listens and asks questions. Ari usually tells her to go liberate more ice from the freezer. Maybe they're impractical ideas – stupid dreams, but they're better than nothing. Now that she's out of school, Rinoa wants to start making changes in the world. Seifer has a stupid dream too. He wants to be a sorceress's knight.

Since the sorceress war twenty years ago, sorceresses are regarded with suspicion and treated like ticking bombs, a radical change from their status as divine beings in religious organizations. Most of those that survive live in isolated regions of Centra. Very few are trained in magic use. Those that are have access to considerably more power than ordinary users of para-magic – sorceresses have direct contact with magical energy. Gossip has attributed many more remarkable powers to the remaining sorceresses, including the gift of controlling elements of nature, telekinesis, the ability to hypnotize the weak-minded against their will, and mysterious powers of seduction.

"I saw this movie when I was a little kid," Seifer explains to Rinoa, as they lie in comfortable leather chairs in the Balamb hotel lobby, "and there's a knight using a gunblade who protects a sorceress from all this shit…I don't know, I guess it made a big impression on me, because when I started garden training I was young enough to learn to use a gunblade, and I did. I've always remembered the movie too, but I don't remember where or how old I was or anything. It was a kind of cheaply made independent film, but it was popular because of one scene where a ruby dragon attacks the sorceress and the knight fends it off. It was famous because the actor was expecting a fake ruby dragon, but they were filming in a real nesting ground, and one of the mothers attacked him. I modeled my fighting style after what I remember from that scene. It's not really traditional though."

"You modeled your fighting style after a movie you saw when you were a little kid?

"Yup." Seifer laughs.

"I picked up some ancient, beat-up little training gunblade from weapons storage when I was, maybe five, and just started doing what I'd seen in the movie. My teacher made me learn a traditional style, but when I was by myself I'd always practice like the guy in the movie. It looked cooler, but it also felt, like…less restrictive."

Seifer demonstrates his unusual stance for Rinoa, brandishing a yardstick in an empty Balamb classroom. He makes several parries and slashes, with rhythmic fluidity, dodging imaginary opponents and using his free hand to help counterbalance wide sweeps of the arm wielding the yardstick. (For lack of a better word,) Rinoa thinks, (it's sort of beautiful. Like a dance.)

"Fighting really is an art." she comments

"Are you kidding? It's a freakin' lifestyle!"

Rinoa laughs and catches the stick in mid-swing. She draws Seifer towards her with it, and he presses the palm of his free hand into the small of her back. They both drop the yardstick as their lips meet, and their arms wind around each other's now-familiar bodies.

Ari: I didn't see much of Rinoa during the summer. When I didn't want to watch them drool over each other, or try to ignore Rajin's clumsy flirting, I'd help out around the hotel. I spent most of the summer vacuuming and folding towels. But Rinoa and I have known each other since we were really little. I used to go to Timber Academy summer school and we'd make trouble for our summer counselors. So I didn't hold it against her. She really liked Seifer, and it was hard for her to make that sudden switch from seeing him everyday to living on different continents.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Against her father's wishes, expressed in an tersely written letter, Rinoa prepares to return to Timber at the end of August. She says goodbye to Ari and her uncle, and to Seifer.

"Promise you'll write to me?"

Seifer nods and presses his forehead against hers.

"I think we're going to be seeing each other again." he tells her. Rinoa laughs.

"I don't think so."

"No?"

"No."

"Care to make a wager?"

Rinoa laughs again and buries her head in his chest.

"Go. You'll miss your train."

"Say goodbye to Fujin and Rajin for me."

"Hurry up."

Seifer watches Rinoa step up to the train platform. She switches her suitcase to her left hand and waves before disappearing into the train. Seifer watches it pull out of the station and descend into an underground tunnel, before turning around to hike back to garden alone.

Rinoa finds an empty compartment at the back of the train. A train attendant helps her lift her suitcase into an overhead storage shelf. It's a comfortable car – the outside wall is mostly a wide window looking out on the passing tunnel, illuminated by lights that fly by as a stripe of orange. There are two padded bench-style seats across from each other, with a knee-high table between them.

She curls up on one of the bench seats and holds the ring on her necklace. She lifts it to eye-level with thumb and forefinger and watches the patterns that the passing lights make on the silver.

She sits at the bench of a small electric keyboard. She is nestled in a woman's lap, with her tiny sandles hanging above the woman's strappy heeled shoes. Rinoa plays the lowest notes on the keyboard with a forefinger and revels in the noise.

"Rinoa, shhh!" the woman scolds her. She is talking to a man standing next to the keyboard. Rinoa makes a face. Then the woman gets up, setting her on the bench.

"Mrs. Heartilly," the man is saying, "if he doesn't turn up, am I to assume that you won't be performing tonight?"

"No, don't cancel anything yet…" the woman sounds very tired.

Rinoa plays a short, cacophonous improvisation of very low notes alternating with very high notes, and then bangs on the keys in the middle. Sliding off the stool and crawling under the keyboard, she watches her mother walk away, massaging her temples and talking to the man. He's wearing a snappy business suit and an ugly yellow tie. She reaches up and plays several notes that echo around the backstage area because she's kneeling on the pedal.

"What on earth am I sending you to lessons for?" laments the woman as she returns with the man in tow. She picks Rinoa up and rests her on her hip. "Mama!" Rinoa announces to the man in the business suit.

"Piano lessons for a three-year-old, Mrs. Heartilly?" the man says, amused.

"If she has her mama's natural musical aptitude, she'll need a head start" says Mrs. Heartilly, giving him a tired smile.

"Now Mrs. Heartilly…"

They leave the backstage area and cross a dark stage. Mrs. Heartilly carries her daughter between the aisles of empty chairs while the man tells her about tardiness and inconsideration. Rinoa doesn't know what he means, but he sounds angry. She hides her head in her mother's hair, hoping he isn't angry that she played with the keyboard. The three get into the backseat of a big black car. Rinoa stares out the window at the passing lights and cars while Mama and the man talk. When she gets bored, she goes to sleep with her head in her mother's lap. The woman strokes her hair and calls her "Rina".

"Timber!" says the train announcer "Next stop…Timber!"

The smell of the Timber train station is familiar and soothing – half airport, half city street. Rinoa steps down from the train, dragging her suitcase, and drinking in all the smells and sounds and the sight of Timber. Old women carrying purses and grocery bags shuffle among stray cats and loitering children, salesmen of pretzels, comic books, and novelty items circulate amongst them. The adults are all dressed casually, and stop to talk to one another at the street corners and the edges of the train platform. She wonders if it's really been only three months that she was away; she feels almost like a different person. It's as though another Rinoa has returned from Balamb, and the city welcomes her as a stranger.

Rinoa: Seifer was right about us seeing each other again. Sooner than I thought too – about a year later I was back on the same train for Balamb, this time as a representative of the Forest Owls. Though our mission statement remained the same, our tactics had changed dramatically. A few months after Zone's father died, he began to take charge, both in his family, and in the Forest Owls. Zone is Zachary's codename. Mine is "the princess"… Watts and the others started calling him 'chief' and 'boss' and by the time he sent me to Balamb garden to speak with the headmaster, he was generally acknowledged as the leader of the Forest Owls. I was to attend an inauguration ball for new members of SeeD.

For some reason the ball brought back memories of watching my mother on stage. Everyone was dressed nicely and conversing politely to the sound of a quartet of strings and the clinking of glasses. Not usually my kind of party, with the distance I keep from my father and "high society". The people at my mother's concerts in Galbaldia Hotel had dressed and talked like this.

I met Seifer at the entrance, as we'd planned. Our email correspondences had been casual and familiar but….short. An exchange of salutations, written formalities, and whatever information needed to be given. "im taking my seed field exam tue, so the ball will be wed. 7pm – meet entrance to b.garden 5pm." I don't know what I expected – not "I love you" or "I've missed you" – just "I'm excited to see you" for example. I'd missed him, and was excited to see him. I still wondered about the 'love' part, though I hadn't seen him in person for almost a year. It was strange seeing him again, but we fell back into our pattern of comfortable familiarity. I got to spend more time with Fujin and Rajin than I had during my previous visit to Balamb, since I was staying at the Garden itself. Fujin has a disconcerting habit of speaking in loud, staccato, single words. Seifer and Rajin seemed to understand her well enough, though it was difficult for me. It took me an awkward five minutes to figure out that "SALT" meant I was to pass it to her. Apparently Rajin and Ari had been in regular contact since I'd gone back to Timber. I wondered whether I should check to see that my father hadn't joined any pacifist organizations. Rajin talked about her in what I'm sure seemed to him to be a casual manner, mentioning her no more than three or four times in a conversation.

But I liked it best when we got to spend time alone. Since I'd last seen him, I'd made some of the stupid dreams I told him about wandering the Balamb docks and beach into realities. For example, the Forest Owls now had a base. Instead of meeting at the houses of the members, we gathered in the oversize train car that Zone's family used to live in. We'd also helped push a bill that prohibited arrest or detainment of citizens by Galbaldian officers without reasonable justification. It was passed and put into effect a month before I left for Balamb. That was probably the Owls' biggest accomplishment in the time I was with them, but if I could enlist the help of Balamb's SeeDs, we'd planned to make the reasonable justification bill look like a joke.

I don't know how Seifer planned to fulfill _his_ dream, but he didn't seem to be getting any closer. He took his third field exam while I was staying at garden, and didn't pass; failure to follow orders. So I went to the inauguration ball alone.

As I've said, it wasn't my kind of party, but I am an open-minded person. I sat at an empty table sipping champagne until a blond man in a highly decorated uniform, maybe in his 20's, asked me to dance. He was a better dancer than I, and I commented on it. He explained that SeeDs learn basic etiquette as part of the standard curriculum. I couldn't imagine Seifer learning continental style use of silverware and how to waltz.

The blond SeeD excuses himself to speak with the headmaster, which reminds Rinoa that that's what she is here to do. The Forest Owls have been sending requests for SeeD assistance to Garden since November, but the reply never varied. Rinoa is sure, though, that if she can explain her situation to the headmaster, speak with him face to face, she'll be able to make him understand the plight of the citizens in Timber and agree immediately.

"I guess it's that kind of dumb-ass optimism that keeps us doing what we do." Zone had joked. "If you think you can get him to do it, go for it. Just don't expect compensation for your train ticket."

And so, with Zone's blessing, Rinoa had returned to Balamb. She watches her dance partner carefully, making note of the man he goes to talk to. A short balding man with brown hair, glasses. She twists the chain of her necklace around her finger and finishes her glass of champagne, waiting for the SeeD to leave. She surveys the room in the meantime. It's really elegant, with a bar and several tables at one end, a dance floor lit by evening sun from a skylight that takes up most of the ceiling, and an elaborate, pillar-framed entrance at the other end. There aren't very many people dancing – each couple has about ten feet of room to themselves in every direction. Most of the crowd is gathered at the bar, or at the small tables in front of it. Very few are standing near the entrance across the floor - there's one female SeeD with flipped brown hair talking animatedly to another with a blond ponytail down to her waist. The blond edges away from the other girl, almost backing into someone standing against a pillar. (Poor Rapunzel.) Rinoa thinks. The guy she almost tripped over is very good looking, even at a distance. She seems embarrassed and quickly walks away.

Out of the corner of her eye she sees the blond SeeD she danced with leave the headmaster. Rinoa is barely out of her chair when another group of SeeDs carrying drinks and plates of food start talking to him. They leave quickly, and Rinoa starts to stand up again, when the headmaster is intercepted on his way to the bar by an aging instructor. Rinoa grinds her teeth in frustration, and stands up. She'll wait a while. Soon enough the party-goers will start to leave – the ball doesn't end until one. The headmaster will be sure to stay for the whole thing, and once the room thins out he'll be more accessible. Rinoa crosses the room to the dance floor and looks for a partner to pass the time.

The man in the corner catches her eye. He looks good up closer too. Messy brown hair, blue eyes. (Very nice eyes) she thinks. He probably has a nice smile, though isn't smiling now though, or talking to anyone. Neither does he seem to have left his post next to the pillar since she saw him almost half an hour ago. He's gazing up at the ceiling. (What's so riveting on the ceiling?) Rinoa looks up. In the hour and a half since she arrived, night has fallen. The spread of stars above her is breathtaking. The stars are rarely visible from Deling City or Timber with their pollution and city lights. It looks as though she could reach up and pluck a star out of the glass ceiling. A blur of light streaks across the sky.

From his place at the entrance the SeeD must have seen it too. She glances over at him to find him looking back at her. She smiles and points up at the sky. (I saw it too.) He cocks his head to the side, questioningly. Rinoa drops her arm and crosses the floor to where he's standing, her pulse a little fast.

(Well, when in doubt, say what's on your mind).

"You're the best-looking guy here."

He doesn't say anything, but takes a sip of his champagne.

"Dance with me?"

(C'mon…say yes.) The SeeD still doesn't speak. He looks at her stonily. Rinoa, uncomfortable with the silence, begins saying whatever comes to mind.

"Let me guess... You'll only dance with someone you like. Ok then... Look into my eyes... You're-going-to-like-me... You're-going-to-like-me... Did it work?" She laughs awkwardly, drops her hand, which she's been swirling in front of his eyes like a sorceress hypnotizing her victim.

(Stupid…stupid…stupid.) Rinoa wishes she could sink into the floor. Or walk out of the ball. But she has to stay and wait for the headmaster. Maybe she can just walk away from this SeeD and avoid him for the rest of the night.

The SeeD coughs, sets his glass on an adornment of the pillar.

"…I can't dance."

Rinoa examines his uniform. Though plain compared to the medal-adorned jacket of her last dance partner, his is clearly the same kind. (If he's a SeeD, then he'll have taken dance lessons.) Is he trying to make her leave? Surely not, he must be unsure of himself. Maybe it's been a long time since the lessons.

"You'll be fine" she assures him "Come on. I'm looking for someone. I can't be on the dance floor alone."

She guides him away from the pillar and onto the floor. He allows himself to be led with reluctance.

Rinoa: The dance we started was pretty slow; I figured that even if this new SeeD's dance lessons had been a while ago, he could handle it. When we got out onto the floor I put his hands into dancing positions and started to lead. He tripped right away and fell into me. I picked his hands back up, and he took the lead, though he was still dancing clumsily. I haven't met a real beginner with a lead that assertive yet. He led us in exactly the wrong direction, and he bumped shoulders with another couple. I don't think he'd intended to; he looked pretty embarrassed.

I told him I was pretty sure he knew how to dance. He shrugged stonily and, as the music changed, began to dance a perfect waltz. At first he looked tense, though he did every step perfectly, but as we both got into the flow of the dance, I could feel his muscles start to relax under the thick SeeD jacket, and his expression softened. He led me into several inside turns, and we stepped close together as the music faded into a softer version of the waltz.

Celebratory fireworks went off over our heads; I could see them through the domed class ceiling. My dance partner looked up at them peacefully, and sort of half smiling. While he watched the fireworks, I watched him. His eyes were nicer in this softer version of his face, their gray-blue standing out against pale skin. He had a fresh scar across his forehead, between his eyebrows, and his hair hung down loosely across his forehead.

I felt vicariously peaceful and relaxed, looking up at this strangely beautiful SeeD. It was strange, because I didn't expect someone who kills for a living to look like that up close – soft and pale.

A sudden movement across the room caught my eye. Over the SeeD's shoulder I saw a young, blond talking animatedly to the girl with flipped hair I'd seen earlier. A few feet away from them, headmaster Cid was standing by himself.

Quickly excusing herself, Rinoa hurries off to catch the headmaster before he gets away again. She would come back as soon as he agreed to meet with her. Maybe she could even make her pitch right here in the ball. Would that be tacky?

She reaches the head master and bows respectfully, her cheeks flushed and her hair a little disheveled. "Headmaster Cid? My name's Rinoa Heartilly, I'm very pleased to meet you."

A/N: As I'm sure you've figured out, Rinoa's thoughts are enclosed in parenthesis, just like in the game. Please review & tell me how it's looking!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Rinoa's train ride home is much improved from her previous two journeys along the same track. She shares a compartment with a young couple from Timber, returning from their honeymoon in Balamb. They make polite conversation about Timber and its various resistance movements for a while, but soon the talk diminishes to the sounds of the train, and the clicking of Rinoa's fingers on her laptop keyboard as she writes an email to Zone, summarizing her interview with Balamb garden's headmaster.

Cid:

_(From Cid Kramer's report to the SeeD Advisory Board (SAB, dated 11/02/42 ))_

_I can't say I was not impressed with Ms. Heartilly's persistence. Few would-be clients of SeeD travel hundreds of miles on the chance that a written request that's been dismissed multiple times will be accepted in person. I imagined when she first introduced herself and explained her proposal that she'd intended to coerce, charm, or seduce me into accepting her faction's request. This is common enough in would-be female clients with shallow pockets. _

_A few minutes of conversation convinced me otherwise. She was flustered when she introduced herself, but as we began talking, and she started to describe to me the oppression of Timber's local businesses under Galbaldia's occupation, her apprehension became a kind of passionate indignation. Her sincerity was striking. Though I understand that a proposal with no statement of the client's intended use of employed SeeD agents, this is a young organization with nebulous plans, pursuing a noble cause. Though Balamb Garden is a business enterprise, it is also a human one. With this in mind, I'd like to render my full support to the approval of SeeD Aid request #7094, submitted October 30nd, 1042…_

Clearly, a novice in the business world. I explained to her that, while I sympathized with her cause, circumstances would not allow for the approval of such a request. Without even considering the money being offered, her faction's plan made garden's involvement all but impossible. For the SeeD program to be identified as connected to what she had in mind would be disastrous for garden. We talked for another hour. The next morning we met in my office and drew up a vague contract that did not state the faction's intentions for the use of our SeeD members. Ms. Heartilly left for Timber with her approved contract the following evening.

None of the Forest Owls are waiting for her at the train platform. A little disappointed, Rinoa says goodbye to the newlyweds and sets off for the Owls' mobile base alone.

She steps down from the train platform carrying her suitcase in one hand, her Blaster edge folded at her hip. The town seems more dilapidated than it did when she left, though she's been gone only a few days. Maybe it's shabbier than she remembers it? And there seem to be more Galbaldian officers patrolling the streets; she counts three pairs between the train station and a bridge overlooking the tracks, where a young man in a blue sweatshirt stops her to make stuttering conversation about the weather. As a kind of icon of the liberation cause, Rinoa is a local celebrity, and accustomed to being approached by strangers. The man in the sweatshirt gives her a plastic pill box containing a potion capsule and quickly excuses himself. When he is out of sight she pitches the capsule into the nearest garbage can. There are plenty who resent the liberation movement too, though few live in Timber.

The Owls' base looks deserted. Lights off, doors locked. Rinoa knocks the rhythm of the first two measures of a pop song on the door. After a minute, the shutters of a dirty window next to the door open and a male voice asks,

"Password?"

"Foxtrot-Oscar."

A short, pale teenager in jeans and a tee-shirt, wearing a blue handkerchief over his head opens the door. "Watts!" Rinoa exclaims, dropping her suitcase to throw her arms around him. "Miss Rinoa! Everyone was so excited to hear the news! No one's in just now, but Mr. Zachary should be back any minute." The entrance room is completely dark, with no light from either the strategy room or the hall leading down the base, and all the blinds shut. Standard procedure for an anti-government faction. Watts heads for the back of the base, while Rinoa sets her luggage down in the entrance room. "Watts, I think I'm going to go lie down for a while. Long train ride. But wake me up if Zone gets back okay?" Rinoa calls. "Certainly" comes the faint answer from the other end of the base. (Watts is making lot of noise, whatever he's doing). At the nose of the base, the sounds of something heavy being dragged and clanging metal are clearly audible.

Rinoa sets off down the dark corridor flipping light switches as she goes, enters the last room in the hallway. Her room is more nicely furnished than the rest of the train car, with pale pink walls, a pink carpet, and a bed with pink curtains and sheets. Rinoa makes a face. The room had belonged to Zone's sister, when the Lindgren family lived in the train car with Jake Lindgren. When he'd been alive. When the family moved out of the base she'd left the bed and pink carpeting. Rinoa had brought her own desk and chest of drawers by train, from her father's house.

She tosses her suitcase onto the bed and sets the Blaster edge's small case on top of the bureau. She wishes, for the millionth, that she'd learned to wield a more practical weapon. Her father had insisted on the Blaster edge, however, because it was easy to handle, could be used as a handheld weapon at close range when folded or fired from a base on her forearm from a distance (the point of which is…?), and was light enough to be folded in half and stored in a purse, or clipped to a belt. It wasn't intended to cause serious injury – just to incapacitate an attacker long enough for the attacked to run away.

Rinoa knows she should be elated, at least happy, as she starts to unpack her clothes. She takes out her cream colored dress, smoothes it out (that SeeD with the eyes…), hangs it in her closet. But something is nagging at her. Maybe something about coming home to a dark, almost deserted base. She takes off the jeans and sweatshirt she traveled in, puts on her usual black biker shorts, denim skirt, black tank top, light blue duster. Strange that no one waited to welcome her back, especially after her big news. The duster and its matching arm warmers are hand-made, from a tiny Timber store called "Angel Wings". Appropriately, it features two white wings on the back.

Rinoa finishes unpacking and shoves her suitcase under the bed, lies down, throws an arm over her eyes. It's not the empty base, really, that's bothering her. It's something about the time she'd spent with Seifer. (What was I expecting, anyway?) Maybe that he would have passed his field exam, for one. She'd expected him to be at the inauguration ball, to help her make her pitch to Cid Kramer. But then, it wasn't really his fault he hadn't been at the ball; he'd been in disciplinary confinement. (It was his fault, though) says a nasty voice in Rinoa's head. (He went against orders on the field). The other boys Rinoa had dated, for longer periods than a few months, had not left as much of an impression on her as her summer with Seifer had.

(That's understandable. He's not like those other guys. He's funny and confident. And he's driven like me. He didn't think I was crazy for wanting to liberate a city under Galbaldian control. And he didn't assume I'd be a shallow, high-maintenance general's daughter. And he made me feel confident too. Like I really could liberate Timber – like his plan talk to Kramer at the inauguration ball must work because he believed it would …) He expected to get what he wanted, and by extension, what she wanted.

But Seifer was clearly not infallible. Rinoa had been hoping that maybe he might be among the team to work with the Forest Owls. Now there is no chance of that…

"Miss Rinoa!" Watts calls excitedly through the door. Zone is back.

Rinoa gets up, straightens her twisted duster. She accompanies Watts back down the hall. Though the blinds are still closed, the lights make the hallway seem more awake.

"He's in the entrance room, just walked in." says Watts.

When they reach the end of the hall, a small crowd, including Zone and his mother and sister, Watts' two brothers, the other members of the Forest Owls and several of their friends and relatives, and a few members of other factions greet her with a lot of cheering, chatter, and a smothering hug from the Forest Owl members punctuated with shouts of "Surprise!" and "Congratulations!". A small banner made from a bed sheet and fabric paint hanging above the entrance door reads _Congratulations Miss Rinoa_. On the other side, showing through the white fabric a bit, it says _Happy 20th, Bill_. Rinoa laughs, greets everyone, is genuinely happy.

When the excitement settles down and everyone goes back to socializing and drinking, Rinoa makes her way to a fold-up table, uneven because one leg is shorter than the others, precariously balancing bottles of wine, beer, soda, and chips. She nibbles on a chip, facing the wall, and a tear rolls down her cheek, and drips onto the snack table.

"Miss Rinoa?" Watts says, appearing beside her.

"I'm fine, I'm just happy." she tells him, shaking her head and waving a hand. She finishes the chip. "I mean, SeeD is really going to come help us." She turns to Watts, eyes shining and excited. As though realizing it for the first time,

"We're really gonna to do this!"

A/N: These early chapters are intended to be "digestible", that is, short and concise. Later chapters will be a little longer. Trivia: Foxtrot-Oscar is "F-O" in the international alphabet. It stands for "Forest Owls". Please R&R

DevilMayCare


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The SeeDs are scheduled to arrive a week after Rinoa's return. That would have given them a day to prepare, but the train station at Balamb is shut down for repairs for several hours the day they planned to leave. By the time the SeeDs are on the train, they have only a day to get to the Forest Owls' base in Timber.

"Daaaaammiiiit" Zone groans, slapping a palm on his desk. "We're going to have to do everything this morning and be ready by noon! Hyne…I can't believe Bill can't come."

"It's fine; I can do it." Rinoa flips distractedly through files. Her eyes are bloodshot and underlined in blue-gray. It's five in the morning. "It's fine. We're basically ready…I have the codes…Watts went to pick up the SeeDs…The dummy car is ready…Hey, did Watts tell you where he got those shots of the inside of the real thing?"

"The real train car? Apparently from one of those 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' TV shows. Hope he hasn't redecorated since last month."

"A television show? That sounds kind of sketchy…"

"It's the best we could come up with. It should be pretty accurate; he hasn't used his personal train car in a long time. He's been at the capital. Dammit…Where's the paper? Did it come yet?"

Still reading, Rinoa digs around a stack of paper, pulls out a plastic-wrapped cylinder, shoves it absentmindedly at Zone, goes back to the papers – complicated diagrams of the outside control panels on a train car.

"AHHHHHHHH DAMMIT!" Zone slams the front page face up on the desk.

_Donovan Dead, PD Suspects Foul Play_

"I thought you didn't like the vice president."

"Well… I didn't want him dead. He was the sanest one in that administration. Now Deling's just going to find someone even worse."

Rinoa tosses the files on Zone's desk. "I'm exhausted. I'm gonna go back to bed. Have Watts or somebody get me when the SeeDs get here, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Rinoa returns to her room, curls up on the bed. Despite the early hour, she can't fall asleep right away.

(SeeD is actually coming. We've been preparing for half a year, and now they're coming. Seifer would be so…happy?)

Rinoa is floating under beautiful, clear water. As her body sinks, her hair lifts off her shoulders, and the ring on her necklace floats up into her field of vision. Her feet touch the floor of the pool; her legs bend and push off of the bottom. Warm water rushes past her face and her head brakes the surface. The air is cold, stinging her skin and chlorine-dried eyes and she wants to submerge again, but someone is beckoning to her, crouched at the edge of the water. It looks like her mother, wearing a slinky red evening dress. She blinks to clear the water from her eyes and the dress becomes a cross on a white trench coat.

"Seifer!" she calls, waving to him while she treads water. She swims to the edge of the pool and looks up, but the sun is behind him and she can only see the silhouette of his head and shoulders. "Seifer, we did it! What you said about the ball…it worked! SeeD is coming..."

"I know." he tells her "They're here."

As he walks away, his footsteps grow louder instead of fading. Then they become muffled, as if by carpet. He turns and waves to her, and Rinoa sees that it wasn't Seifer at all, but another familiar man wearing his coat.

Rinoa wakes up strangely well-rested and alert. (I must have slept longer than I thought…the SeeDs…the SeeDs are coming!) Something had woken her. Footsteps…

Rinoa opens her eyes and sits up. There's a man in her room – the one who had been wearing Seifer's trench coat. Also her dance partner the night she spoke to Cid Kramer.

"Hey...You're...! You know, from the party..." Rinoa realizes she doesn't know the SeeD's name, but he's definitely the one she had danced with - the one with the eyes. Instead of his SeeD uniform, he's wearing black pants and a black, fur-lined jacket over a white tee-shirt. Three belts, one equipped with a brown items pouch. Black gloves, black clothes, heavy black boots. A silver, stud earring, silver chain necklace with an ornament on the end. All black and white and silver, with some kind of weapon on his back, its handle visible above his shoulder. Very little of the softness she remembers from the SeeD ball, except in the soft, shaggy hair.

"So...does that mean...You're one of the SeeDs?"

"I'm Squall, the squad leader. There are two others with me." Squall nods. His voice is low, measured, professional. ("Squall…")

His words seem to confirm his authenticity. He is not an illusion or dream. She leaps from the bed, smiling and laughing outloud, sure that he must be feeling her overpowering excitement – it must be tangible – and throws her arms around his neck.

"YEEESSSS! SeeD is here!" she exclaims, laughing so hard now that her eyes tear up. Some part of her hadn't really believed it until she'd seen this strange soft mercenary, looking so out-of-place in her own familiar room.

"Take it easy."

"I'm sorry it's just …" Rinoa walks to her desk. It's just what? That what she'd doubted and simultaneously clung to belief in had finally come? That this one day's work that would change Timber's history? World history? "I'm so happy. I've been sending requests to Garden forever, but nothing...I'm so glad I spoke to Cid directly!" Rinoa laughs. Her laugh is high, like her voice, and naively blissful, like a child's.

Squall looks over Rinoa, taking in her disheveled hair, wrinkled clothes, sparkling brown eyes. She does not look like a key player in an underground political resistance.

"So you were looking for the headmaster at the party?"

Rinoa nods. "You know Seifer Almasy?"

"...Yeah."

"Well, he's the one who introduced me to Cid. Cid is such a nice man. I really didn't think SeeD would come out to help a measly little group like us. But after I explained our situation to him, Cid gave the go ahead right away!"

Rinoa beams at the stony SeeD. "Now that you guys are here, we'll be able to carry out all kinds of plans!"

Squall coughs uncomfortably. "I'm going back to the others"

"Okay, let's go!" Rinoa starts towards the door; her mind is racing. In her spontaneous embrace, she'd seen Squall's eyes up closer even then at the SeeD ball. They were the intensely blue, like the water in her dream. She shakes her head, stops and turns back to him.

"Oh yeah, my name's Rinoa" She offers him her hand. Squall hesitates, and then shakes hands. "Very pleased to meet you, Squall." she says sincerely. They stand in mid-handshake for a minute, and then quickly draw back their hands.

"SeeD members dance quite well, don't they?" she asks coyly.

He shrugs. "Approach your target inconspicuously at a dance party...

There may be missions requiring this sort of subterfuge. It's expected of SeeD to learn various skills."

"Oh…so it's work related." Rinoa had hoped the dance lessons indicated more to SeeD training than combat and stratagem. Maybe they would understand the political, the historical significance of what they were about to do? "That's too bad."

They stand in silence for a few seconds that last for hours. Rinoa clasps her hands behind her back and traces an arc on the carpet with the toe of her boot.

"Okay umm…we should probably get back to the others. Thanks for waking me up." Rinoa turns quickly away. Squall follows her down the hall in silence, Rinoa intensely aware of his eyes on her back, until they reach the entrance room, where Watts, Zone, and the two other SeeDs are waiting.

One is a muscled blond with an exotic tattoo on the side of his face. Blue jacket, baggy demin shorts, tennis shoes, hair spiked several inches in the front. He reminds Rinoa of the basketball players in her high school in Timber. The other is a girl of short stature wearing a yellow jumper and carrying nunchaku on her back. Thin limbs, especially in contrast to her oversize brown boots. Her brown hair is flipped up on either side and in back. Rinoa recognizes both from the ball. Neither has the crisp, military air she'd imagined – they could hardly be older than she herself – but SeeD is an unusual mercenary program. "Touchy-feely" Zone had called it, yet the most effective, proportionate to its numbers, in the world except for maybe the mysterious Estharian elite combat forces...

"This is Zell…" Squall gestures to the blond. "...and Selphie" he nods at the girl. Rinoa greets them and starts to introduce Zone, but Selphie interrupts,

"Oh, we've just met!" she positively beams at Rinoa. She smiles back politely. (That's a cheerleader, not a soldier.)

"As you all know, we're somewhat behind schedule…" Rinoa begins, checking Watts's watch. Watts holds up his wrist obligingly. It's already 7:30. "If you could all step into the meeting room," Rinoa gestures to a rusty door with several scribbled memos scotch taped its surface and flinches, "we're going to go over the operation we'll be carrying out today, and then you'll have some downtime before we begin at about twelve o' clock."

Zell and Selphie exchange surprised looks at the confident directions coming from this 5-foot-three teenage girl, but they follow Watts and Zone into the meeting room. Rinoa holds the door open, entering last and closing it carefully behind her. She watches each SeeD enter, sizing them up. Zell is compact, and has an almost awkward gait, as though trying to take up as much space as possible. Selphie's tiny frame seems weighted to the floor by her boots. Rinoa wonders how she can run in them. Squall walks in looking straight ahead, finds an empty corner, and stares at the floor, arms folded.

A toy train set sits on a fold-up table with a book under one leg in the middle of the room. One wall is taken up with windows, all the dusty blinds drawn, but tilted enough to cast stripes of sunlight onto the carpet dust floating visibly in the lines of light. The room is half-lit by a naked bulb above a bulletin board at the back of the room, full of newspaper and magazine clippings, and a few photos of members of the forest owls at a costume party. The room smells invasively of wood and paint.

Selphie begins examining the train set right away, admiring the tiny plastic trees and train cars (one is made of wood, coated sloppily with acrylic paint and labeled PRESIDENTIAL CAR in sharpie). Zell scans the bulletin board, looking unimpressed.

"Just stand anywhere you want" Zone says offhandedly. A tall, thin Estharian teenager in a blue hoodie and long shorts, Zone isn't physically imposing. His voice however is larger-than-life and self-important. Clearing his throat, he continues, "This is a full-scale operation. Our resistance, The Forest Owls, will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence!" He paces the length of the small room, drawing out suspense. "Exciting, huh? Well, it all started when we got a hold of top-secret info from Galbadia."

"I got the info sir!" Watts interjects from a corner.

"There's a VIP from Galbaldia coming to Timber" Zone tells them, with a shade of irony. He drums his fingers on the edge of the toy train set.

"Super V-I-P!" Watts adds, impressively.

"The guy's name is Vinzer Deling!" Zone spits out the name like something bad tasting. "Our arch-enemy and the President of Galbadia."

"Vinzer Deling is a scoundrel! He's a dictator, not a president. Not even popular in his own country, sir!" says Watts. Zone turns to give him an admonishing look.

Rinoa cringes inwardly and tries to move the meeting along. "President Deling is taking a private train from the Galbadian capital. Our plan is to-"

"Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher?" Selphie suggests.

Everyone laughs nervously except for Squall, listening impassively. (He probably thinks we're totally incompetent…)

"Ahh…not quite" says Zone.

What the Forest Owls planned to do, the SeeDs had to admit, was clever and well thought-out. (Whether we can pull it off is another matter…) Using two switch points leading up to the Timber train station, the Owls planned to insert their own train car into the president's train, appropriate his personal train car, and use the Owl's base to toe itr down a forest-lined track used mostly for tourists. Zone demonstrates the procedure with the toy train set.

"We won't attach any of our cars to any of theirs except for the presidential car." Rinoa explains "So we'll only need to uncouple two sets of cars, the two escorts on either side of Deling's." She points to the two blue plastic cars, with tiny, olive green army men glued to the roofs. "Then we'll need to couple our base and the presidential car together. We'll only have about five minutes total, so at that point we'll need to split into two groups."

"Five minutes? Are you sure that'll be enough?" Zell's voice sounds to Rinoa like an energetic cartoon character's, even through its skepticism.

"According to the simulation that we ran, it should only take 3 minutes to complete the operation. Piece of cake for SeeDs, right?" says Zone.

"Since we can't uncouple the cars directly, we'll have to tamper with the control system that manages the coupling. If we temporarily disable the circuit for the connection, the car will uncouple automatically. To disable it, we have to enter several codes…."

Selphie looks confused, but Zell nods.

"Alright, so we need two 'flyers' who will wear climbing harnesses," she gestures to the closet where Watts is already getting out black, full-bodied harnesses procured from the local climbing gym "and two 'belayers' who will sit on the roofs on the train cars and lower the flyers down. Got that?"

"But there are only three of us…" Selphie says, eyeing the harnesses uncertainly.

"I'm the fourth. Bill was going to be the one to go with you; he'd be better for this." Rinoa says apologetically "he sprained an ankle yesterday; we haven't had time to find someone else. Zone has a weak stomach and Watts…"

"Gathering information's my specialty sir!" Watts explains.

"Watts doesn't do this sort of thing. But I've been through this operation a hundred times on the model; I probably know it the best anyway."

Zell looks impressed in spite of himself. (I guess I don't look like the type…)

After the meeting disperses, Watts gives the SeeDs a tour of the base and teaches them to use belay harnesses. Rinoa returns to her room and almost trips over a cot someone has set up for Selphie.

She opens the bottom drawer of her dresser and pulls out several potions, "status-curing" items, and smelling salts called "phoenix down". Storing the items in the a cheap, items pouch in her pocket, Rinoa opens her blaster edge case and takes out a shining metal wheel, about the size of her head. She folds it in half along a hinge and attaches it to a clip on her belt, buckled around her hips. The semi-circle shaped weapon sits parallel to her legs, the blade pressed flat to her thigh for protection. She folds the weapon's "base" – two rings connected by a contracting spring, and snaps it into the middle of the half-circle. Compact, discreet, easy to use, wretchedly ineffective. Still, Rinoa feels empowered with more than beauty and charisma at her hip.

Preparations complete, she flops down width-ways across the bed, closes her eyes, breathes deeply. Her thoughts slow down and she hears Watt's voice through her door, telling the SeeDs,

"This is our princess's and Selphie's room. Zell and Squall will be in my room, right here sir! We have a few hours before Deling's train is due to reach ours, so you can rest and make any preparations you need to…"

A door opens and closes in the hallway; someone knocks on Rinoa's own door.

"Come in!" On reconsideration, she drags herself off the bed and sits on the cot. Selphie enters and shyly closes the door behind her.

"Hey, guess we're gonna be roommates, huh?"

"Yeah, make yourself at home."

Selphie sits cross-legged on the bed, looks around inquisitively. Rinoa gets up and crosses the room to her chest of drawers. She selects several plastic boxes and another black items pouch from the bottom drawer and hands them to Selphie.

"I think you'll find just about everything you need here…potions, basic status items…"

"Oh it's fine!" Selphie answers brightly. "We carry our own stuff."

Her own rectangular brown pouch, embossed with Balamb garden's modified yin-yang symbol, holds a row of green capsules – potions, a few red capsules - high potions, tiny bottles of phoenix down smelling salts, a dropper bottle of eye drops, tablets labeled "all-purpose remedies", a capped vile of what looks like water marked with a cross…

"Yeah, they equip us really well!" Selphie explains. "So what kind of weapon is that?" She points to the blaster edge at Rinoa's hip. "I've never seen something like that before…" Over the next half-hour, Rinoa learns that Selphie grew up in Trabia Garden, specializes in casting magic, and just became a SeeD along with Squall and Zell. This will be the first mission any of them has carried out under contract.

"That doesn't mean we don't have any experience though" she assures Rinoa "The training at the gardens gives cadets a chance to work in the field. In fact, we all passed our SeeD field exam together…"

And Selphie launches into a story about their mission to help fend off a Galbaldian attack on Dollet, a seaside town far north of Timber.

"So then this Black Widow thing gets up _again _and chases us down to the beach…" Selphie is telling Rinoa with wide eyes when she's interrupted by a loud knock. "C'mon in!"

"Yo, Selphie" Zell opens the door "Where's Rinoa? Squall said I have to…Oh! Hey Rinoa, here's our info. You were supposed to get it as an attachment with Garden's acceptance but there was some kind of mix up, anyway…"

He thrusts a manila folder at Rinoa. A cover letter water marked with a picture of Balamb garden, a small booklet titled _The SeeD Program_ in gold script, pages of information about each SeeD member, including black and white printed pictures.

According to her profile, Selphie is a magic specialist with only basic required weapons training. She's also a licensed pilot with an interest in space flight and magic-use theory. Zell is a martial artist with a background in mechanics. Rinoa glances up at the SeeDs recalling their exam in Dollet. Zell is pantomiming and making a sound like an explosion. She shrugs inwardly and turns to the squad leader's profile.

Squall Leonheart

DoB: 8/23/25

Height: 5'8''

Blood Type: AB

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Blue

More basic information follows. Squall is a gunblade specialist, whatever a gunblade is, and one of the most promising students in garden according to a short report by the headmaster. His junctioned avatar is a thunder spirit named "Quezacotl"…

(Junctioned Avatar…GFs. Seifer told me about them.) Rinoa flips back to Zell's and Selphie's profiles to find that their avatars are a fire demon called "Ifirt" and a non-elemental avatar named "Siren". It all sounds strange to Rinoa; Seifer never talked about _names_ for avatars. Rinoa tosses the folder onto her desk and looks at the clock above it. Only an hour until Deling's train is due.

"Hey Rinoa, we're going to go check in with Squall; make sure we're all set." The SeeDs leave, Zell with an amiable hand on Selphie's back. Rinoa hears the boys' room's door open and close. (When did this mission start to feel so…real?). These SeeDs have forces she barely understands at their disposal, exotic weapons she's never seen…They didn't even need the Forest Owls' potions – they'd brought their own.

Zell: The Forest Owls' base was really shabby. Like, they didn't even have hot water in the bathroom. No one really lived there – It was just kind of like an office for planning and meetings and whatever. Our room was the size of a frickin' walk-in closet. The Forest Owl leader Zone and the dude that picked us up totally didn't have it together. The other girl, Rinoa, was pretty cute, but she didn't look like a hands-on kind of girl. It turned out though the guy that was supposed to do the mission with us was out sick or something, and she decided to do it herself. Pretty cool…

Anyway, I'd hoped I'd be rooming with Selphie – no luck. But she did laugh at my joke about the priest, the Galbaldian major, and the chocobo while we were touring the base. We had a last minute meeting with Squall an hour before we were gonna make the train switch. I think it was something they told him to do as a team leader; he tried to give us a pep-talk after we'd all checked our items pouches and they'd equipped their weapons. He wasn't very good at it.

"This mission, well….you know. It's our first paid assignment. We're…representatives of Garden…we must behave as such. We need to trust each other completely…think clearly, make good decisions, and…well…our first priority is our safety and the safety of our client."

Squall isn't really a people-person, totally the opposite of Selphie. She and I played cards while Squall reviewed the mission data _again_. I let her win my Chimera card.

We all got these weird belay devices and climbing harnesses so Squall and I could lower Selphie and Rinoa down between the train cars. The full body ones for the girls were alright, but ours looked some kind of kinky S/M gear. They make it hard to walk too, I couldn't touch my toes. The girls took a few copies each of the coupling codes.

I was actually pretty excited for the mission – it's not like we'd be given grades like the field exam. It was just us and our brains and our belaying equipment. The only thing really bugging me was the dream I'd had on the train over to Timber.

I think we were slipped some kind of sleeping gas, though I've never heard of an inhalant that makes people have the same dream. We all dreamed that we were Galbaldian soldiers. Sometimes I was sure that finding out we'd all had the same dream was a dream itself. Apparently Selphie had the same thought; she kept asking me if I still remembered "Sir Laguna". That was pushed out of my mind pretty damn fast though.

A/N: This chapter is about the SeeDs and the Forest Owls sizing each other up, making snap judgments, and falling short of each other's expectations. Please review & tell me if that message comes across. Thanks!

Devil May Care


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rinoa leads the SeeDs to a tiny, dark room at the front of the base car. Selphie picks the cobwebs off of and sits on an overturned crate, while the other three stand, with about two square feet of space to themselves. (Okay, here we go). Squall, squashes himself into a corner, as far as possible from the others and inspects the dusty floor. Finally, they feel the train jolt and start moving.

"It'll take a couple minutes for us to get up to speed. We'll have to be traveling at exactly the same rate as the presidential train…" Rinoa explains. As much as she doesn't want to admit it, she's getting nervous. Planning to kidnap the president hadn't fazed her, but jumping between moving trains was an intimidating prospect. The tiny room feels suffocating. Rinoa shifts her weight nervously, takes deep breaths. She feels like she wants to yawn or take a deep breath, but the close walls of the room are restricting her lungs. She wipes her damp palms on her duster.

Watts cracks the door to the crowded room; a shaft of light squeezes in, illuminating the unsettled dust. "We're almost tailing the train now sir!" he tells Squall, the closest to the entrance.

"Alright." Rinoa says bracingly "Let's go topside!"

She climbs the ladder, pulls a rusty latch to open the hatch in the ceiling. The wind sweeps the trapdoor open and it bangs against the roof of the car. Rinoa climbs out onto the roof, and is almost thrown backwards by the wind rushing past. Her hair and the tail of her duster blow back behind her. Selphie, Zell, and finally Squall emerge from the hatch.

As each SeeD climbs out, he is immediately hit by the rushing wind, and crawls carefully out of the car, staying low to the roof. Trees pass in a green blur to their right. The whirring of the train and the rushing wind are deafening.

Up ahead, the presidential train is backing slowly towards them on the tracks to their left. The blue and gray cars remind her of an enormous whale, approaching to swallow the Owl's tiny car. Rinoa and the three SeeDs crouch at the nose of their train as it gathers speed and slowly, draws up alongside the other. Squinting against the wind, Rinoa stands, still bending over, and waits until the fronts of the two train cars are parallel. She takes a few deep breaths, and, heart beating in her throat, leaps off the nose of the car. Time stops for a second in mid-leap, and Rinoa goes deaf to the racket around her. Briefly wondering whether she'll fall short of the train, she suddenly lands crouched near the middle of the president's escort car, the wind having carried her back several yards. Staying low to keep her balance, she crabwalks to the front of the car, where she sits and takes her pulse with her fingers. It's much faster than normal, but she doesn't feel scared anymore, now that the waiting is over.

Zell's jump is well timed, and he lands behind Rinoa. Squall almost overshoots his mark, and comes down towards the back of the train. Rinoa is amazed at the fluidity of the jumps - they suggest that Zell and Squall have been hopping between trains all their lives - until she remembers that their strength and agility are enhanced by avatars.

Selphie's leap is less successful. Instead of jumping with her feet towards the ground, she throws herself headfirst at the president's train, and almost misses. She lands crouched at the very edge of the car, but off balance so that a curve in the tracks makes her slide towards the back of the car, her legs dangling over the edge of the roof.

Squall runs, bent double, to Selphie's landing point and heaves her onto the car by her forearms. Then, seeming unfazed by her brush with death, they rejoin the Zell and Rinoa at the front of the train car.

The jump between the second escort car and the president's car is easy enough; the gap between cars is only a few feet. Though none of them can talk over the deafening wind, they follow Rinoa to the opening between the president's car and his first escort car. Rinoa directs Selphie and Zell across to the first escort car, where they lie on their stomachs above two of the train windows to act as lookouts for Squall.

"OKAY!" Rinoa screams over the wind "REMEMBER HOW WE PRACTICED?"

Squall nods and unhooks a coiled belay line from one of his belts. He wraps it around his waist and attaches the end to a clip on his climbing harness. Tossing the other end of the line to Rinoa, he settles into as sturdy a sitting position as he can, and holds the line with both hands. (This would be so much easier with better equipment. I guess you have to work with what you have. Please don't let me die, please don't let me die, please don't let me die…) Rinoa buckles the other end of the metal line to her own harness. She salutes Squall jokingly and carefully lowers herself over the end of the train.

Hanging between the two cars, Rinoa finds welcome respite from the racing wind. The window in the back door of the car is tinted, so she'll have to rely on Selphie, Zell, and Squall to warn her if a guard is coming. Sitting in the harness is a little like sitting in a chair, Rinoa speculates, as she fishes her sheet of codes out of her skirt pocket.

(Now, where is the coupling system hatch…there….no that's something else…there! Alright, it's open. Deep breath. Disable circuit…Okay, code 1: 4114…code 2…)

On the roof of the car, Squall sits with his feet bracing him against the train. Being quite a bit heavier than Rinoa, he doesn't need to brace against the force of the rope; his bodyweight is enough to keep him still.

He keeps an eye on the front of the car in case Selphie or Zell signals the approach of a guard, but the uncoupling goes off without a hitch. When she's finished with the codes, Rinoa reaches up to the overhanging roof of the car and pulls herself partway up to the roof, then adjusts her arms and pushes her body up to waist level. Sqaull reals in the slack in the line connecting them and lifts her easily over the edge of the train by her hips. Rinoa's nerves return and her pulse soars. (I'm up in the air I'm up in the air put me down put me down.) But at the same time…. (Don't put me down…)

The group gathers in the middle of the presidential car and watches as the first escort car seems to shrink away. The Forest Owls' base and dummy car slide seemlessly into the gap in the president's train. Rinoa motions everyone to put their heads together so that she can shout,

"SELPHIE, ZELL, COUPLE OUR BASE AND DELING'S CAR!" she points to the car behind them. Rinoa and Squall cross to the opposite end of the car and reattach the belaying cord to their harnesses, so that Rinoa can detach the president's car from its second escort. Rinoa drops over the side of the car as before, and this time wastes no time in finding the controls to the coupling system. She takes out her list of codes, and in her excitement, promptly drops it to the ground racing below. Praising Watts' foresight in making extra copies, Rinoa takes a spare out of her boot and begins entering codes. As she works, Rinoa replays the firm pressure of the SeeD leader's hands on her hips as he lifted her to the roof of the train. They'd had the same strength and energy they'd had during their second dance at the SeeD ball – confident hands, like Seifer's demeanor. Though Squall seems more cold and withdrawn than self-assured and passionate. When she finishes the uncoupling, Rinoa pulls herself halfway up to the roof of the president's car, and waits for Squall to help her rest of the way up.

They meet up with Selphie and Zell in the middle of the president's car, and the group quickly makes their way back to into the Owls' base. Being inside feels warm and dark, and Rinoa is a little off balance standing upright instead of bent double. Behind her, Selphie and Zell are laughing and congratulating each other. Squall is silent.

"You did it!" Zone exclaims, laughing as much with surprise as anything else as he hugs Rinoa in the entrance room. "We should be slowing down soon; this track was made to give tourists a view of the Timber forests…" Zell high-fives Selphie, while Squall rearranges his wind-whipped hair. (Kind of like a cat grooming himself.) Rinoa smiles privately.

"You guys were great!" she tells the SeeDs, her cheeks flushed and her hair tangled around her face. "Now it's only a matter of time before the president realizes he's not on the same train anymore, so we'll have to confront him soon…"

"Was that perfect, sir? Amazing, sir! You're the best, sir!" Watts tells Squall happily. Rinoa briefly wonders if they'd even needed the SeeDs, enamored as she is with her own success.

"Everyone, we'll meet at the back of the base in five minutes!" Rinoa announces, still blushing with pride and excitement.

"Finally...We've waited so long for this encounter with Vinzer." Zone says, an arm still around Rinoa's waist. Zell notices and tries to put his arm casually over Selphie's shoulders.

"Get off, you're all dirty!" she admonishes him, to everyone's amusement. That was true, Rinoa noticed. All four were covered in dirt from the roofs and disheveled from the wind.

"Hey, we can all take showers after some serious negotiations with the president!" Rinoa promises.

"'Serious negotiations'" Zell mutters to Selphie as they disperse "better bring your nunchaku."

Selphie: Rinoa was really sweet, I liked working with her. I thought Squall and Zell were cool too, though I hadn't seen much of them around garden. And Zell kept coming onto me. Anyway, we were all _gross_ after climbing around on those dirty trains. I love trains, but I never want to do that again. I was really excited though – I follow current events enough to know that Deling's kidnapping would be in every history book that covered the decades after the Sorceress War for the next millennium. And I would be a part of it. It had been easy too, if you call jumping between the tops of trains and rappelling down the sides of them easy. Actually, security on Deling's train had been really lax. It kind of seemed too simple.

We didn't have time to clean up much before we met at the front of the train. Zell kept talking about "kicking the tyrannical bastard's ass" and Squall just kept to himself. Rinoa reminded us that Deling was unlikely to put up a fight, even if he had a bodyguard or two with him. Squall seemed to think otherwise though – he made sure Zell and I were equipped had our weapons, field items and energy to cast magic. My avatar, Siren, was talking to me too. Not literally, in words, I only call it talking. What I mean is, Siren gives me feelings and sensations and sometimes memories when she's trying to tell me something, and I'd always been able to tell when they were coming from her, even though we hadn't been junctioned as long as Squall and Zell had with their GFs.

In Trabia garden I didn't junction a GF until I was twelve, and that only lasted for a year or so. When I transferred to Balamb to take the field exam and join the SeeD program I was assigned Siren based on my "personality type" and the fact that I'm a magic specialist and all these other variables – blood type and random things like that. Traditionally, students junction for life with the first guardian force they defeat in battle, but I guess the practice is dying out now that they have all these fancy matching systems.

While we were waiting for Rinoa at the exit to the base, Siren gave me an image I'd seen in a magazine, I think it was Timber Maniacs. It was a picture of Vinzer Deling smiling and hailing the press with a raised hand. There was a caption across the bottom of the picture, and I was sure I'd read the article. As much as Siren pushed the image at me, I couldn't read the caption, or remember the article. I closed my eyes and leaned against the door so I could concentrate, and felt cold in my hands and feet, even though the car was warm.

When we stepped into the president's cabin, he was the only one there: sitting behind an expensive looking oak desk reading a magazine. The décor was pretty nice, especially compared to the Owls' cars. In addition to the desk he had a water cooler, a bookshelf, a futon, and a potted plant along the walls not taken up by a huge window with sheer curtains. Everything was decorated in a tasteful brown or black, except for the pink carpet.

The president didn't even look up when we walked in. Zell and I automatically scanned the room, and then took up positions on either side of Rinoa. Squall moved towards the desk, but Rinoa touched his arm to stop him, and crossed over to Deling herself. She sounded confident, but her hands were shaking.

"...President Deling! As long as you...don't resist, you won't get hurt..."

Deling didn's move for a moment, like he was ignoring Rinoa. Then he folded his paper and set it on the desk. He stood up and stretched for a minute, and then looked us over one at a time.

"And if I do resist...What would you do...? Young lady?" he whispered.

When he started talking I knew something was wrong. I'd seen the president speak on television. It wasn't as though I knew him personally, but this man's voice was about an octave higher than the president's on TV, and raspy, like he was losing his voice.

Rinoa must have noticed too, she looked taken aback and took a few steps away from the desk as he began to…climb over it. Deling set one polished shoe on the paper he'd been reading and brought his other leg up to meet it so that he was crouched on the desk, facing us.

"I'm not the president. I'm what they call...a body double." he said, even more quietly.

The image of the president burst into my mind, as though Siren was screaming. He was still smiling, his fake, presidential smile, his hand held aloft. Not his hand though. I could read the caption now - "Could there be Another You?" – as well as an excerpt below it I was sure I'd forgotten: "Vinzer Deling's body double, nicknamed 'Gerogero', draws the attention of the paparazzi while Deling makes a quick exit." The article was about the genetically altered employees of celebrities and politicians who imitate them to draw attention away from their employers.

Rinoa stands paralyzed in front of the crouching president. She gropes for something to say to give her the upper-hand, some kind of threat or assertion. But the president continues in a voice low enough that only Rinoa can make out,

"All these rumors about the many resistance groups in Timber...You pass along a little false information and they fall for it...How pathetic...Seems like there are only amateurs around here."

Deling takes a crouched step across the desk and leers at Rinoa. (Enough!) She gives the folded Blaster Edge at her hip a tug upwards and it comes free of its clip. She holds defensively in front of her, and the SeeDs at her sides follow her lead, realizing that the serious negotiations are over. Zell crouches in a fighter's stance, and Selphie draws her nunchaku. Squall steps behind the desk, blocking the door at the back of the car, a gun-sword hybrid drawn and held in front of him with both hands.

Though his stance is different from Seifer's, Rinoa recognizes the weapon. It's similar to the gunblade Seifer had tried to teach her to hold that summer. She had barely been able to lift it.

Deling stands on his desk and turns to face Squall, his head almost touching the ceiling. He reaches for something in his breast pocket, and then collapses, sending the potted plant on his desk crashing to the ground.

"No!" Rinoa screams, crouching in the spilled soil and leaning over the unconscious Deling. "What did you do?" she yells at Squall. Murder. Squall had just murdered Deling. For a moment, Rinoa is impressed, then shocked again. Satisfaction battles with horror in her head. She turns away from the body, feeling as though she might throw up. Someone is lifting her to her feet and guiding her to a wall.

"Rinoa, that's wasn't the president." says a high female voice. Selphie's.

She replays the last few minutes in her mind. (A…body double?) The SeeDs are talking among themselves, but Rinoa can't register anything they're saying. (How can they be so composed? We've just murdered the president. No, I mean, not the president. He's not the president. We planned this for months…)

Zell is turning over the body while Squall squats on the floor, examining a hypodermic needle.

"Did he…ya know…?" Selphie asks, drawing a finger across her throat and raising her eyebrows.

"No." Squall answers, not looking up from the needle. "That doesn't make any sense."

Sure enough, the unconscious body begins to twitch, and Squall rests the edge of his gunblade on its throat warily. The body double does not attempt to stand, though. It writhes on the ground.

Then it starts to swell. Lumps form under the cloth of its wrinkled business suit, and the back of its head distends sickeningly. The SeeDs back away, but Rinoa stands up and watches in awe as the body double rises to its knees. Its left side is swelling much more quickly that its right, and soon its left arm and leg are weighing it down on one side. It also seems to be growing taller. The cloth of its clothing strains, and finally begins to tear at the seams, first on the right, then the left. The broken bits of cloth slip to the carpet. It heaves its grotesque body around to face Rinoa.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A mass of swollen nodules, grey, scaly skin, blue veins, and stretched sinew, like a massive human assembled from various corpses. Its deformed, claw-like left arm is connected to its torso by translucent sheets of flesh, anchored to the top of the engorged left leg. Resting precariously on its sinewy neck, the tiny head lolls from side to side. Its yellow, bloodshot eyes scan the room as it reels and twists its neck.

It takes an unsteady step on its right leg towards Rinoa, who shrinks back against the wall. With a heave of its whole body, it pulls its grotesque left leg forward to meet the right. Though it has no lips, it seemed to be smiling at her as it reaches its thinner arm towards her.

Rinoa holds her folded Blaster Edge in front of her, but the monster never reaches her. Squall steps in front of her, Selphie and Zell on either side of him, and slashes the blade in front of him. The wiry arm pulls back and the body double cringes around the wounded limb.

"Squall, it isn't bleeding!" Zell shouts.

Squall nods, and Rinoa understands at the same time. Whatever Deling's body double has become, it doesn't have a circulatory system. It's an "undead" creature, operating on magical energy instead of energy from food or oxygen.

The SeeDs are shouting to one another in what seems like another language. "Alpha position" and "Magic support". "Rinoa, get behind the desk." stands out, and Rinoa staggers to her feet and makes her way towards the overturned desk, crouches behind it, and breathes deeply.

When she peers over the edge of the desktop, the monster and the Seeds are fighting across the room. Zell turns to his side, and sharply kicks the body doubles right leg. Rinoa winces at the cracking sound of a bone breaking, and the body double screams, high-pitched and unearthly. It swings its grotesque arm at Zell, knocking him to the ground.

Squall is kneeling in a corner of the room, reloading his gunblade. Selphie stands a few feet from him, casting magic. Rinoa has never seen actual casting, except on television, and it isn't as glamorous in reality. Selphie makes none of the elaborate, graceful gestures of magic users in movies; instead she holds her nunchaku in one hand, and pushes the other forward, palm-first towards the monster. A shock of blue light, like a bolt of lightening, connects Selphie to the body double for a moment. Then it falls to its unbroken, oversized knee and hisses.

Rinoa closes her eyes, and ducks back behind the desk. She feels very drunk, as if the whole room is spinning. Or maybe she's spinning. She realizes all her muscles have seized up, as they start to relax and she falls to the carpet.

Rinoa wakes up feeling warm and stiff, lying in her own bed at the forest owls' base. She sits up and stretches her bruised limbs, blinking sleep out of her eyes. She can feel her heart beat in her temple and ankle.

Rinoa barely recalls rolling the ankle as she fell to the floor of the train compartment. When they'd murdered the president. Then it hadn't been the president. A body double. A legalized clone used for the security and convenience of a public figure, a celebrity, politician. Rinoa groans and rests her throbbing head in her hands. All those months of work, the fortune spent on the SeeDs help, and the trip to Balamb it had taken to procure it. What an incredible waste. Well, not entirely a loss, maybe. The SeeDs could do more for the faction than carry out this one mission… (Hyne…we were so stupid).

Someone knocks twice on the door. "It's open" Rinoa says hoarsely, and the SeeD leader enters and closes the door quietly behind him. He regards her with cold, impartial eyes. Rinoa is suddenly conscious of her disheveled hair and clothes. She's still wearing the duster, shirt and shorts she'd had on during the uncoupling of the train cars. She looks down and quickly smoothes her tousled hair with her palm and crosses her ankles, ignoring the stabbing pain in the left one.

"Here."

Squall hands her a red bottle. She takes it, and motions him to sit down on the cot next to the bed.

"A hi-potion?" she asks, examining the tinted plastic.

"An elixir. Potion and remedy, combined."

Rinoa already knows what an elixir is. Her father had given her one to keep in her purse. (He's so paranoid). Elixirs heal the body, and cure most common "status abnormalities" – temporary changes in behavior or abilities brought on by mind-altering chemicals.

"It's fine, I don't need it." she says, offering the bottle back to Squall. No sense wasting an elixir when a hi-potion will be enough.

"When the body-double attacked you, it inflicted several status effects. Many probably haven't worn off completely."

Rinoa takes a drink from the bottle obligingly. It's thick and grainy, and tastes like artificial fruit. Like a milkshake made of Gatorade. She wrinkles her nose, but swallows the rest, and turns her attention back to Squall.

"How long was I asleep; what time is it?"

"Quarter to nine."

Rinoa traced a rose on her bedspread with a finger, and then glanced out the window. Trees flashed past, below a darkening, overcast sky.

"We're still on the tourist track?"

"Heading back to Timber."

The two sit in silence for a minute. Rinoa flinches a little as her ankle starts burning. Maybe the elixir is starting to work.

Squall glances down and frowns.

"Put your foot up."

Rinoa obeys, setting her leg gingerly on the cot. Squall carefully unlaces her boot, and slides it off the injured foot. Rinoa cringes; her ankle is swollen to twice its normal size.

"I can deal with it." she says quickly, drawing her foot back, I have a first aid kit, right there…" she motions helplessly to the dresser

Squall doesn't move to stop her, but says "You won't be able to walk on it."

Recognizing the truth of the observation, Rinoa returns her foot to the cot, and lets Squall tie an ice pack from the first aid kit to it with an ace bandage. Rinoa can't help but notice that his hands are like his face – soft in a way they shouldn't be, and smooth except for calluses from the grip of his gunblade. She leans back on her forearms and watches the light glint off Squall's mop of brown hair, distantly aware of piercing cold on her skin, and heat in her face.

"Squall, what happened in the train car, after I passed out?"

Squall stays silent for a few seconds, then answers, "We defeated the body double. Zone decided we'd return to Timber by a back route. We left the presidential train car in the forest."

Squall stands abruptly and walks towards the door. "We'll be in Timber by ten." He departs, leaving Rinoa leaning back on her bed with her injured foot elevated. She sighs. They are now, officially, enemies of the Galbaldian government. Rinoa feels an unreasonable surge of smugness. She lies back on the bed, feeling the stiffness in her muscles relax as the elixir takes effect. She wonders who carried her from the fake president's car back to the base.

Very early the next morning the SeeDs and the Forest Owls move from Timber's train station to Zone's house.

"I don't expect we'll be traced anytime soon." he explains to Rinoa "But it'd be crazy to stay in this car. We just need to lay low for a few days. Maybe try to find out what Deling is doing in Timber. He came in by private plane yesterday, a few hours after the train."

The Cannon's house was in the middle of a crowded street a few blocks from the train station. The small, brick house seemed to be squished between the larger houses on either side of it, much taller than it is wide, with curtain-less windows and wilting flower boxes squeezed onto its tall front. The front steps extend several yards above the ground, framed by iron handrails, looking down on an overgrown front yard.

Zone's mother and sister probably aren't awake when the party arrives at five in the morning, so they walk on tiptoe through the eerily quiet house. The smell of cats and dust reminds Rinoa of afternoons spent studying and playing video games in the Cannon's living room.

Watts deposits his backpack in the hall and leaves almost immediately with granola bars and an apple in his coat pockets to "gather information". Zone goes back to bed, while the SeeDs set up make-shift beds in the living room to get a few more hours of sleep.

On her way upstairs, her ankle fully healed thanks to the elixir, Rinoa hears Zell and Selphie talking in the living room. She hears Zell finish a sentence that sounds like "…getting kind of ridiculous." She pauses and leans over the stair rail to see Selphie curled up on the couch, and Zell sprawled under a blanket on the rug.

"Maybe we should ask to see our contract?" Selphie asks uncertainly.

"They probably left it on the train." Zell says. "Besides, basically it says that the contract is in effect until Timber achieves independence."

"That is sooooo vague." Selphie rolls over. Rinoa continues up the stairs.

The hot shower water feels wonderful. At first, all Rinoa can think about is relief at being rested, healed and clean. She washes copious dirt and a pine needle out of her hair, and scrubs under her fingernails. When finally feels clean, Rinoa wraps a towel around herself and moves her clothes from the washing machine to the dryer. She sits on the washing machine, letting water drip from her long hair onto the floor as she waits for her clothes to dry.

She wonders what the SeeDs think of the Owls. Probably not very highly. (We're not the typical clientele for SeeDs. Most measly little political factions can't afford them. They're probably used to really professional organizations…but this is their first mission, for all of them. Why did they want to see their contract?).

Rinoa yawns. Too much to think about right now, it's too early. She curls up on top of the washing machine and lets the rhythm of the dryer lull her to sleep.

Rinoa is in the water again, but it only comes up to her knees. She's standing in wet sand, with cold ocean water rushing around her legs. Sun is breaking through the clouds above her, but the air is cold, and Rinoa shivers and wraps her bath towel tighter around her. The horizon is foggy and gray. She turns to leave the water and get back to the beach, but the grotesque form of the body double is lying in the sand a few feet behind her, dark seaweed and tracks of salt streaking its scaly skin. Rinoa takes a step back into the water, and then runs along the shoreline, trying to put distance between her and the misshapen body. As she moves from the wet sand on the shoreline to the dryer sand on the beach, running becomes more and more difficult. She keeps having to adjust her towel, and finally hold it up with one hand. With each step her foot sinks in to her ankle, then to her knees. She sits back on the beach, her shins buried in sand, panting.

The buzz of the dryer wakes Rinoa up. She hops down from the washing machine and opens the bathroom door a crack to check the clock in the hall. It's almost seven. Rinoa dresses quickly and goes downstairs.

To her surprise, Rinoa finds the SeeDs already seated around the kitchen table eating breakfast with Zone, Mara, and Donna Cannon. Selphie is chatting with Mrs. Cannon, while Zone and Mara argue. Zell keeps mostly to his oatmeal, though he glanced up at Selphie occasionally. Squall sits with arms crossed, staring moodily across the across the kitchen.

"Rina!" Mara greets her as Rinoa enters, the argument with Zone forgotten. She stands up and embraces Rinoa, then pulls out a chair for her. Mara has Zone's dark skin, reddish-brown hair, and black eyes, but wears the colors better than her brother. She's tall and thin, with a long ponytail and dark eyelashes. She's wearing a water polo tee-shirt and jeans. Mrs. Cannon looks like an older version of Mara, but shorter and heavier. Her blue dress and full white apron do little to offset her figure. She wears her hair tied back in a bun, covered with a kerchief.

Everyone at the table greets Rinoa, except for Squall, who busies himself with folding his napkin.

"So Mrs. C was just saying, our attack made the news this morning." Selphie says to Rinoa.

"It was on J77," Mrs. Cannon says quietly "a local station in support of the resistance movement" she added for the SeeDs' benefit. "The anchor was saying that an 'unknown resistance group' attacked the president's body double en route from Deling City, but the president made it safely to Timber…unfortunately in other news…"

Everyone but Squall laughed. (It's nice to know people are on your side, even after something like this) Rinoa speculated.

"Man…I can't believe that president was a fake." says Zone, through a mouth of toast.

"I can't believe you fell for it." Mara adds, disdainfully.

Zone seems about to retort, but is cut off as Watts rushes in though the swinging kitchen door.

"Info, sir! New info! It's big news! I found out the real reason why the president's here, sir! The president's going to the TV Station! Security's really tight, sir!" he announces, barely drawing breath.

"Why in Timber?" Rinoa asks. "They can broadcast just as easily from Galbaldia."

"Maybe the Dollet communication tower has something to do with this?" Selphie says, turning to Zell and Squall.

The rest of the room looks to at three SeeDs.

"What's that?"

"Dollet has a communication tower that can transmit and receive radio waves." Squall says slowly.

It had been abandoned for a long time, but the Galbadian Army got it up and running yesterday."

"Yeah" Zell adds "The G-Army withdrew from Dollet on the condition that their uplink to the tower stay connected…"

Dollet had been the site of Seifer's latest failed field exam, the capital of a small Dukedom about a day's drive from Timber. Maybe these SeeDs had taken the exam _with_ Seifer. What could Galbaldia want with an abandoned communication tower in Dollet, when Deling could snap his fingers and have a new one built anywhere in the Galbaldian empire? Maybe there was something valuable in it? But why would they insist on maintaining their connection to the tower if they'd found what they were looking for. Or even if they hadn't…

When Rinoa turned her attention back to the conversation, everyone was speculating on the nature of Deling's business in Timber's TV station.

"Maybe he's shooting a public announcement or something."

"He could do that in Deling city."

"He sent his personal guard and body double separately, so he must be planning to stay for a while."

"Or he expects to need a safeguard."

"He _will_ need a safeguard if I find him."

"Shut up, Zone."

"The only TV station that can handle broadcasts over the air is in Timber. Other stations use HD cable, which only supports online broadcasting." Squall says softly. The kitchen is silent for a few seconds.

"So what's that supposed to mean?" Zell says impatiently.

"They're planning on using radio waves. This way, they can transmit images to regions with cable." Rinoa explains, her eyes lighting up. Deling was going to use radio frequencies. Why?

"I know that...! But I mean, why use radio waves?"

"There must be something they want to say to the whole world." Mrs. Cannon says to her soup.

"What can it be?"

"'Everybody! Love and Peace!'" Selphie exclaims.

Rinoa laughs. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if the first broadcast could be the declaration of Timber's independence?" she muses.

The Forest Owls set their new course accordingly. While Mrs. Cannon cleared the table, Zone, Watts, and the SeeDs retired to the living room to prepare. Rinoa and Mara went to Mara's room. While Mara organized her desk, Rinoa packed her belongings in her black plastic suitcase and set it beside Mara's dresser.

"Going so soon?" Mara joked.

"I want to be able to get out of the house in a hurry. I don't expect they'll be able to trace us, but I don't like to put you and Donna in danger."

"You know the Galbaldians," Mara says nervously "Bureaucrats to the core. It'll take them days to go through the paperwork…"

"They haven't found the base yet either. We're alright for now, but better to be safe. The fire escape is still open?"

"Yeah, it is. I understand."

The Owls plan to infiltrate the Timber television station is primarily of Watts's and Zone's design. Watts knows every corner of the city, including the area around the station, and draws a map on the back of a garage sale flyer. He explains it to Rinoa and the SeeDs gathered around the coffee table in the living room.

"This is the T.V. station, right here behind the pub."

"What's 'T.M.'"?

"That's the Timber Maniacs building."

"I can't see. It's upside-down." Selphie complains. Zone rolls his eyes as Watts flips the map around.

"We'll enter through the back door to the station, right at the top of these stairs." To the SeeDs, Watts added, "You may have to force your way in. The station doesn't officially open until tomorrow. That's probably when the president was planning to make his broadcast."

"So basically we're going to try to kidnap the president, and then make an illegal television broadcast the next day." Zell says skeptically.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." Zone insists. Watts continues,

"You'll make your broadcast in the studio, here. Then either exit the way you came, or leave by way of the roof. The roof of the television station connects to Timber Maniacs, and that's next to Ana's house. You can get to her attic via the skylight."

"Ana?"

"She's the leader of Forest Fox." Rinoa explains. (I hope the back exit is clear. I've had enough of jumping around in high places…). "Alright, so who's going to the TV station?"

"Gathering information is my specialty sir!" Watts says quickly.

"Ah…my stomach is acting up." Zone says, suddenly doubling over. "I think I'd better go make sure Ana knows what's going on."

Rinoa sighed. "So me, Squall, Zell, and Selphie. We'll make our broadcast, and then meet back here or call you from Ana's."

Rinoa said goodbye to Mara and Mrs. Cannon, and left for the TV station.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Rinoa: I remember how we all cowered every time we passed Galbaldian patrols. If they didn't have reason to pay attention to our appearances alone – apparently the local patrol didn't know us on sight – we probably gave them one the way we walked past them with our heads down and arms crossed. Squall was as silent as always, but so were Zell and Selphie. To get to the TV Station's back entrance we had to pass through a tiny underground pub; our other option was to go to the back alley leading to the station by way of Timber's main street, which was always swarming with Galbaldian patrols.

The pub owner, Maya, was originally from Northern Esthar. She was a heavy-set woman with dark skin and black hair, which she dyed red with henna. She was trying to convince a drunk slumped at the base of her back door to move when we arrived.

She said "namaskar" and asked in Chali if we were behind the attack on the news. I said "hain" and Selphie and Zell exchanged dubious looks. Squall didn't seem surprised; I wondered if he spoke Chali. Most of the world operates in English Common now, but local languages endure in some places, and I've always had a kind of knack for learning them.

Since we needed to get out the pub's back door to get to the TV Station, and didn't want to draw attention to ourselves by dragging the drifter away from it, Squall bought him a drink and put it on the bar. He grumbled about disrespectful young people, but he moved to get his drink and Zell, Squall and Selphie went out to the back alley. Maya held me back, said "dhannabad" and tried to give me a few Gil, which I refused. That's one of the great things about Timber residents – they'll give their time, money, or whatever support they can to the resistance movement, even if they aren't part of a faction. It occurred to me how proud she would be to see our broadcast. "Keep your television on a local station for an hour or two." I told her in English, before leaving the bar. I figured that maybe, if we could pull this off, then hiring the three SeeDs wouldn't have been a complete waste, even if they hadn't been much help so far. I checked that the declaration speech Zone and I had written was still in my pocket. Maybe the three SeeDs would take us seriously now, too. Zell, in particular, and to some extent Selphie obviously didn't. They probably considered our faction beneath them.

The four walk down the grimy alley in silence, pass through a rusty gate, and climb the steps leading to the upper floors of the TV station. Rinoa is so focused on the ground in front of her that she doesn't notice the huge television screen mounted at the top of the steps until Selphie points it out. She recognizes it as the screen used for public announcements. It's visible from the main street of Timber, and from Town Square outside of Timber Maniacs.

As Rinoa reaches the top of the stairs, the giant monitor lights up starts to make a buzzing sound. Black and white static plays over the screen.

"I thought…the station is supposed to be closed down until tomorrow…" Rinoa says. The SeeDs shrug and shake their heads.

"Then…there are already people inside? Hang on." Rinoa rushes up to the door to the station and listens at the door. She can barely hear talking and movement within. Feeling overwhelmed, Rinoa returns to the others. They don't look as anxious as she feels. Selphie is sitting on the railing, swinging her legs. Zell is leaning against it with crossed angles. Squall stands with his arms folded, staring at the ground.

"They weren't supposed to be open until tomorrow…" she says helplessly. The SeeDs are silent. "So we can't just rush in...We've gotta come up with a new plan now…If the president leaves, maybe the guards will be gone, too? Then we can do _our_ broadcast. It might not be as influential but it's better than nothing, right? We don't stand a chance if we take 'em head on…right?"

"Don't worry about us. We'll fight your enemies based on your decision." Squall says impassively. "That's our duty." he adds after a minute.

"You tell us to go, we go. Even if it is a losing battle." Zell adds. Selphie says nothing.

Rinoa shakes her head. "How sad...Act on my decision? That's your duty? What an easy life it must be, just to follow orders..." (Seifer never thought that way. He'd never give himself over to someone else's discretion and take whatever came of it. He'd probably have stormed the station by himself. But look where that attitude had gotten him…no closer to becoming a SeeD. Maybe that really is how the life of a mercenary has to be.)

"…to believe that you can do it, though..." Squall was saying. Rinoa replayed the last few moments in her mind. He's said, "Call it what you want. All we want is for you to achieve your goal using our help. I find it hard to believe that you can do it, though... "

Rinoa took a step back as if he'd slapped her. "W-What did you say? If you have something to say, just say it!" Rinoa felt heat rising in her cheeks.

Squall told her to forget it, but she insisted.

"How serious are you, really? The four of us with rudimentary knowledge of filming processes try to broadcast a speech the day after failing to kidnap the president of Galbaldia. Your base is an abandoned train car." Squalls pale face flushes a little bit. "On top of that, you can't make a decision without our input, right? How do you think we feel, working for such an organization?"

It occurs to Rinoa that this is the most she's heard Squall talk since he arrived at the Owls' base. She fumes in silence for a minute, trying not cry, and wanting to scream. Selphie and Zell are paying attention now. Squall looks icily at Rinoa for a second, and then his expression softens.

"...Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away." he admits.

(No, go on! Go ahead and tell me that this faction is pathetic and you're all ashamed to be working for us, taking orders from me. Go on and say you're too good for us.) Tears of anger and frustration form in Rinoa's eyes, which she opens wider to keep them from falling. (We were all so optimistic a few days ago. Before the SeeDs got here we were all full of plans. Now things are moving way too fast. I can't keep up now…)

Rinoa spoke quietly, without meeting anyone's eyes. "You know...Maybe this was all a big mistake. I thought everything would work out fine once SeeD came to help us. But, I guess it's not that easy. You were all hired. It's not like you were one of us."

Rinoa collects herself, smoothes out her hair. She no longer feels like crying, just angry and let down.

"Um, let's see...We'll cancel the plan, and we'll disperse for now." she said authoritatively "We don't stand a chance if we take 'em head on, right?" She turns to head back down the stairs but circles back around when she realizes that the SeeDs are still standing in stiff silence behind her.

"So...you guys probably think this is all a game to us." she says tiredly.

"...Well, it's not. We're serious. So serious...it hurts." (Right now it hurts a lot. Without all those ambitions and plans to liberate Timber, what else do I have? I'm just some runaway semi-celebrity brat…I need to get out of here.)

Rinoa turns around and walks back towards the stairs, not caring this time if the SeeDs follow. They can do whatever they want; it doesn't really matter right now. (I just need to be away. I'll go to Zone's house…).

When she reaches the bottom of the stairs, the SeeDs aren't following, but the giant television screen above her is stuttering to life. The static noise and fuzz clears and a man in a business suit, standing at a podium surrounded by press microphones appears on the screen. The image is distorted by the angle of Rinoa's view, almost directly over the screen, but she recognizes the popular host of a late night talk show she can't remember the name of. She remembers him being melodramatic and patronizing and flattering his interviewees by turns, and slicking his blond hair back into a greasy shell on his head.

On the screen, his hair is naturally wavy and lighter than usual. He clears his throat and begins speaking into the nearest microphone with elaborate gestures and contrived excitement.

"Testing...1...2...Testing...Testing...Ohhhh! People of the world! Can you see me? Can you hear me? Oh, this is incredible! Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a recording! This is an actual broadcast over the air! Yes, it's been 17 years since a live broadcast has been possible! Oh, please excuse me...I seem to have lost my composure."

A laugh track plays in the background as he brushes imaginary dust from his shoulder and leans into the podium with anticipation.

"We would like to present to you today a message from the lifelong President

of Galbadia, Vinzer Deling. Ladies and gentlemen, President Deling."

An aging man in an expensive looking blue suit enters from the left of the screen. His slow, ostentatious walk makes Rinoa's stomach turn. He pauses deliberately in front of the podium, and then leans on it like a bartender leaning affably across the bar to speak with a customer. His bushy eyebrows and small eyes give his face a monkey-like quality. His ears protrude prominently through his gray hair. He addresses the camera in a slow drawl,

"Greetings. I am Vinzer Deling, lifelong president of Galbadia. Today, I stand before you to make the following proposition: We, the people of the civilized world, have the power to end all wars. Unfortunately, there are some trifling problems standing between Galbadia and other nations, and they must be resolved."

Somewhere off-screen is a loud crash faint shouting, which Deling ignores.

"I plan to convene with other nations' leaders immediately to resolve these problems. At this time, allow me to introduce the ambassador who will be my representative for the conference, the sorceress…"

(A sorceress as his ambassador?) Rinoa has time to wonder before a man enters the screen from the opposite side, carrying a gunblade in one hand, and extending the other like a shield. His blond hair, trench coat, and unique grip on his gunblade are unmistakably Seifer's. Rinoa sits at the bottom of the stairs, the wind knocked out of her. The screen, the stairs, the whole TV station feel surreal. She stands up again and begins to climb the stairs, as if in a dream, her eyes still glued to the screen, where Seifer is fighting off guards dressed in dark blue, wearing helmets and masks. The president is shouting to someone off-screen.

(Seifer, what are you doing here? What are you _doing_ here!) Rinoa thinks over and over, though on a semi-conscious level she knows well-enough. Why else would Seifer be in Timber if not for her? He'd have found out when her request to Garden was approved, there were few secrets between students at Garden. Was this his idea of helping her? Even as she denounces it as lunacy immediately, Rinoa feels an irrational burst joy and gratitude.

Seifer is now dragging Deling away from the camera with one arm, poising the blade of his gunblade at the president's throat with the other. Rinoa wonders briefly why the camera crew hasn't stopped filming. They've probably abandoned their equipment…

A tall, blonde woman in a pink dress runs into the view of the screen, her back to the camera. "For the last time, _stay_ _back_!" she yells at someone off-screen. "You're only going to provoke him!" She turns to face the camera, and Rinoa sees her face is flushed, her shiny blonde hair disheveled. She grabs one of the microphones at the podium, which shrieks in protest. "Timber Team, are you watching? Report to the television station immediately! You _have_ permission! I need help!"

Rinoa reaches the top of the stairs and runs for the door to the station at a full sprint, but with no plan of action in mind. (Timber team? Whoever they are I'll definitely get there first…). The station's backdoor leads to a hallway that seems to stretch endlessly before her, lit with bright overhead lamps and lined with infinite, identical doors. (I could use the Seed's help now) she thinks miserably, staring at the hallway. She begins running again, passing doors and doors, her boots pounding on the carpeted floor. An elevator comes into view on her left. She skids to a stop, panting and wipes sweat out of her eyes. A panel to the left of the elevator says "Studio, floor 2". Rinoa jabs the down button on the elevator, stands with her arms folded for a second, and then throws up her hands and pitches through the door to the stairwell next to it.

When she reaches the second floor the struggle seems to be over. Galbaldian guards are running back and forth and kneel over fallen comrades on a deserted filming floor. The white screen behind the podium and the filming floor flaps dejectedly at a corner. Two studio lights on tall poles have been knocked over, one leaving the floor strewn with broken glass. Employees of the studio gather in corners, talking rapidly into cellphones. A female member of the camera crew is crying quietly into her sleeve.

Rinoa stands, taking stock for a minute. If Seifer is still here and alive, he's probably lost his grip on reality. She could be in danger here, she realizes, eyeing the corpse of one of Deling's bodyguards, lying in a pool of blood at the foot of the podium. Several guards and station employees look up at the sound of a shout from behind the white filming screen.

"Stay away from me!"

It is definitely Seifer's voice, but with a note of panic alien to Rinoa's memories of it. This is not the Seifer who had expected the world to make a doorway because he needed to get through. Rinoa crosses the chaotic filming floor to the white screen. She takes her folded Blaster Edge from her belt and cuts a long slash in it, from above her head to her knees, and steps through the opening. A low, melodic woman's voice is saying,

"Such a confused little boy. Are you going to step forward? Retreat? You have to decide."

The owner of the voice looks up sharply and narrowed her eyes at Rinoa as she enters. Her simple black dress clung to the curve of her hips and flared at her feet, where it brushed the ground. At the top it was covered in a small cape of black feathers, the neckline dropping several inches below the woman's pale collar bone. An elaborate headdress decorated with shells and beads framed her sharp, pale face, with dark eyes, small lips, and tiny purple veins in her temples. She looks like a queen of phantoms or the priestess of some dark, warped cult. Or, Rinoa realized, the elaborately dressed sorceresses in movies and on television. A sinister goddess surrounded by dusty cardboard boxes and framed by a black stage curtain hung behind her. A few feet from her, Seifer stands with the president still in his arms, held by the blade at his neck.

The woman raises a hand casually, and Rinoa feels her body go rigid, as if the air around her has suddenly become solid. She tries to move forward, to turn her head, and finds she can only breathe and blink. Every major muscle in her body seems to have frozen. She can feel her heart racing, and instinctively reaches to take her pulse, which of course she can't. Her knees feel weak, and she is distantly aware that if her legs could bend, they would buckle under her.

Seifer seems not to have noticed her; he is staring intently at the woman, his knuckles white around the grip of his gunblade.

"Stay back!" Seifer warns again, like a suicidal man on a bridge might warn by-standers, Rinoa thinks.

"The boy in you is telling you to come." the woman continues. She walks, glides, towards Seifer and the incapacitated president. "The adult in you is telling you to back off. You can't make up your mind. You don't know the right answer…You want help, don't you? You want to be saved from this predicament." She looks up again, and exhales through her nose, as if in exasperation. She flicks her hand casually into the air again, and Rinoa hears a sharp intake of breath beside her. "Don't be ashamed to ask for help. Besides, you're only a little boy."

A few feet from her, the blond woman who had told the guards not to provoke Seifer stands immobilized as Rinoa is, in mid stride with one hand over her heart. Her blond hair is pulled into a messy half-ponytail with long stands left dangling on either side. She wears a sleeveless pink dress over black pants and boots, several black belts, and maroon colored sleeves that from wrist to shoulder.

Next to her are Zell, Squall, and Selphie, the latter two with weapons in hand, but none of them moving. Recovering from surprise, and then relief at seeing them, Rinoa realizes that all three are frozen as she is. She glances back to the blond woman. Clearly she already knew Seifer. She had probably come with him from Balamb garden. If that's where he'd come to Timber from at all. Rinoa notices that, despite being wide and frightened right now, the woman's light blue eyes are very striking. She wonders if she's Seifer's girlfriend, with a remote pang of regret. Seifer doesn't seem to have noticed any of them. To the woman, he insists,

"I'm not a boy, sorceress!"

(Sorceress?) He addresses the woman with indignant respect, not the mix of fear and loathing with which one usually calls a sorceress by her title.

"You don't want to be a boy anymore?"

"I am not a _boy_!"

"Come with me to a place of no return. Bid farewell to your childhood."

The Sorceress advances on Seifer until she is inches from the president held in front of him. Seifer releases Deling, who falls to his knees, and then scrambles backwards into a corner, shielding himself behind an overturned crate. Seifer turns, for the first time acknowledging the people frozen behind him, and waves ceremonially to them, his gunblade slung over his shoulder. His eyes lock on Rinoa's for a moment, and he half-smiles. Then he turns, and follows the sorceress across the room. They pass the cluster of immobile observers, the sorceress without any acknowledgement. Seifer stops next to Rinoa and places a hand on her shoulder, before following the sorceress. They step through the tear she'd cut in the screen minutes earlier. The sorceress turns and gives another flick of her hand, then disappears. Rinoa falls to her knees.

Seifer: The sorceress was there, as she'd said she would be, but she did not help me smuggle the president out of the station. The first time I saw her in person I was surprised. She dressed traditionally. These days most sorceresses wear less conspicuous clothing. We followed the script she'd described to me more or less. She patronized me, I resisted, and I bid goodbye to my childhood. Then we left the station. She petrified anyone who tried to stop us on our way out. Guards rushed up to her with blades drawn or ordered her to stop from a distace. They seemed to ignore me. She petrified them with a wave of her hand and continued, and I followed her. When one of the camera crew fired at me with a plasma pistol from a dead guard's belt (still attached to the belt, in fact), she reached a gloved hand towards me and blocked the shot with a rounded, blue shield that flickered and then disappeared. After that she had me walk in front of her, and gave me verbal directions. "Go right. Ignore them, keep walking."

We walked right out into the streets of Timber and boarded a train. Once settled in a compartment, I expected her to say something. To tell me I'd followed the ceremonial script well (though I didn't understand the need for it), to tell me where we were going, or explain my new responsibilities. She stayed silent, so I did too, and watched the city go by through the frame of our wall-wide window. I wondered what the conductor had thought of her dress.

I met the sorceress two years ago, when she'd held a secretarial position at Garden. Allowing her access to the records of every student in the academy, the post was ideal for her search for an exceptional student with an independent streak, as I learned a few months later. It was years later that I learned she'd secured the position by killing an applicant with a better résumé. We met when I was sixteen.

When my feet started to fall asleep I kicked my legs up on the table between us in the train compartment and leaned back. The sorceress didn't move from her seat, but she raised a hand and I felt myself lift off the bench, suspended by the back of my neck as though an invisible hand had picked me up. My feet slid off the table. With no sterness or emotion she said,

"Show me no insolence, boy; I am not a secretary. You will learn that I am not dependent on you, in time. You are expendable. Replaceable. You will hardly even be of use until I have taught you certain skills…ways of thinking…"

She seemed to drift into thought, and let me fall back to the bench with another flick of her hand. The train rumbled on. I sat hunched over the table.

"Yes, sorceress Ultimecia…"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Squall, Rinoa, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and Ana Coote gather in Ana's living room, silently eating dry cereal and sipping the straws of cardboard juice boxes – lunch. Other than the curtains drawn over locked windows, the room looks as Rinoa remembers it: a small electric fireplace in one corner, an off-key piano with yellowed keys in the other. The sofa is decorated with fall-colored leaves against a blue background, clashing terribly with a peach carpet and butter-yellow walls.

Quistis is a SeeD from Balamb garden. Formerly, Zell tells Rinoa privately, she was Seifer and Squall's instructor. Zell seems distraught, Rinoa thinks, watching him chew broodingly on his plastic straw. Quistis seems nice enough. Her glasses make her look intelligent, and her composed demeanor gives her an air of control of her surroundings. She'd allowed the SeeDs to lead her out of the TV station's topside exit and across the roof of Timber Maniacs to Ana's attic skylight. (Hyne bless Watts's forethought.)

"Sorry about the food…I haven't been able to get to the grocery…" Ana says curtly, before turning on her heel and heading for the kitchen, her black ponytail swishing. A large woman, Ana has to turn a little sideways to get through her narrow kitchen door.

"Thanks chief…" Rinoa calls after her.

Ana's daughter Elisa, a woman of about twenty with her mother's dark hair, but a thinner figure pokes her head into the living room briefly to wave to Rinoa, and acknowledges the SeeDs with a brisk nod.

"Chief?"

"She's the leader of the 'Forest Fox'. Almost everyone's a resistance member in this town. But right now, we're the only ones that are really active."

"She seemed upset." says Selphie.

"She was upset. I'm putting her family in danger by being here." Rinoa says miserably. (This wasn't what she agreed to when she'd let us stay in her home. But who could have known they would trace us this quickly? Or that any of this would happen…) Still, she knows that Ana would have let them stay even if she had known that Galbaldian officers would be combing the area for the president's attackers. That's how members of the Timber resistance groups operate.

Ana's phone rings. Rinoa switches seats with Quistis to answer it.

"Coote residence" she says cautiously.

"Princess? It's Zone." Rinoa wonders why Zone is using her nickname, and then realizes he's afraid that their line isn't secure. (I guess you can't be too careful…)

"They found…my old house. It's completely destroyed." (Our base, they traced it.)

"Well…we were expecting it, just not so soon…Good thing you thought to call me here."

"I've been calling like, every half-hour since the show started." Zone sounds tired. "What took you so long?"

"We had to use Watts's plan B. I'll fill you in later, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Look, we all need to talk. Watts and I will meet you there, alright?"

"Is it safe for you to be out in the open?"

"Watts already is. "Gathering information." A hurricane couldn't keep him inside at a time like this."

"Okay, well…keep your nose down." she forces a laugh. They hang up.

The SeeDs are sitting silently, Zell with his head in his hands. They all look pretty worn-out, except Selphie, who is admiring the Cootes's photos. Presently, she turns around and wonders aloud,

"I still don't get it. What did Seifer come here for?"

(No Selphie, please don't ask that.) Rinoa sighs and sinks back into the couch.

"I think...he came to help us, the 'Forest Owls'. I talked about it a lot with h-" Rinoa pauses mid-sentence to listen to the insistent knocking on the front door.

"Galbaldian guard. Anyone in here?" barks a voice outside.

"What is this? I have 2 small children in here. Don't do anything to frighten them!" Ana shouts back, as Elisa rushes into the living room.

"Upstairs, hurry!" She shepherds Rinoa and the SeeDs to an upstairs bedroom, where her younger brothers, ages seven and three, are standing on a toy chest, peering out the window.

"Will your mom be okay?" Selphie asks.

"She can take care of herself." Elisa assures her. "The legend goes...that my mother took down many soldiers with her strength, cooking and beauty." Elisa leads the younger boys out of the room, the three year old staring at the SeeDs with wide eyes, and closes the door behind them.

"That 'beauty' part sure makes it sound like a legend." Selphie yawns, flopping width-ways on a bed covered with a rocket ship decorated quilt. Quistis sits on the opposite bed, bedecked with a giant, grinning dalmation from a pre-school television show. Zell sits silently in a corner, and Squall stands, arms crossed, eyes on the ground. Rinoa sits against the toy chest and folds her arms over her knees.

(Did Seifer really come back for us? Why else would he have…attacked Deling…but who was that woman? He just went with her…they must have met before. They walked right out into a room full of Galbaldian guards...if they arrested him…)

Rinoa lays her head on her folded arms and forces herself not to think about Seifer's fate if he was arrested. Even when she closes her eyes, she can still feel the pressure of his hand on his shoulder.

"I wonder if he's alright…" she says, half to herself. Quistis answered her,

"He was so angry when he found out it was only the 3 of you dispatched to Timber." She mimicked his outraged voice pretty accurately, "'What? They might end up fightin' the whole Galbadian force! And all they dispatch are 3 rookie SeeD members? Dammit! I'm going to Timber!' I never would have guessed he was serious about it."

Rinoa laughs bitterly, inwardly. (He's always serious.)

Quistis sighs and rests her chin in her palms.

"What's going to happen to Seifer?" she asks no one in particular.

"He may already be dead." Squall says impassively.

Rinoa flinches, angry at having been forced to think what she couldn't think. An image of Seifer's rigid body in an executioner's chair came unbidden into her mind's eye. (And ultimately,) said a nasty voice in her head (whose fault will it be?)

"How can you be so casual?" Rinoa says unhappily "I feel…sorry for him."

Squall shakes his head and laughs quietly.

"What's so funny?" Rinoa stood up, feeling heat rising in her face. "You're terrible!"

"Why do you think he may already be dead?" Quistis asks quickly.

"The president of Galbadia and the sorceress joined forces. Seifer attacked the president. It's no surprise that Seifer may have been killed because of it." He answers, no longer laughing.

"I hope he's alive." Rinoa insists.

Squall doesn't look at her, but answers to the floor,

"Reality isn't so kind. As long as you don't get your hopes up, you can take anything...You feel less pain." He meets her eyes for a moment, and then quickly returns his to the floor.

"Anyway, whatever hope is none of my business." he adds quickly, seeming embarrassed to have spoken so frankly.

Rinoa exhales sharply through her teeth and then turns to face the wall as warm tears spill down her cheeks.

"…Sorry." Squall says, not sounding it.

They sit in silence for a minute or two, long enough for Rinoa to steady her breathing. (I'm not going to do that again) she tells herself firmly, wiping her eyes with her knit arm warmer.

There's a familiar knock, the rhythm of the opening bars of a pop song, on the front door downstairs. Rinoa stands up quickly and rushes downstairs.

"The other officers just left!" Ana is saying anxiously to her daughter. Elisa motions Rinoa to go back upstairs.

"It's alright," she says opening the door. "It's Zone."

Zone hurries in and heads for the living room, while Watts closes the door behind them and greets Ana and Elisa politely. Like everyone else, Watts looks tired and worried. He has dark circles under his eyes, and the handkerchief tied over his head is askew.

"What took so long?" Rinoa asks.

"Stopped at the train station sir…I'll explain in a minute…" Watts says, as Zone comes back out of the living room.

"Hey Rina, Mrs. Coote Ms. Coote Where are the SeeDs?" he asks hurriedly. Rinoa leads them upstairs.

Quistis is quickly introduced to the other Forest Owls. Rinoa gently wakes up Selphie, who's fallen asleep on the rocket ship covered bed. She thinks for a minute that Zell is asleep too, but he's still crouched quietly in the corner, contemplating the wall.

"The Galbaldian forces are withdrawing, sir." says Watts. "Temporarily anyway, only the soldiers normally stationed here will stick around. If you're going to leave town, now's your chance sir."

"Come on, downstairs." Zone says gruffly. Quistis, Zell, Selphie and Watts follow him. Rinoa stands up, looks pensively at Squall for a minute, then purses her lips and follows Watts downstairs, where the SeeDs, Forest Owls, and Ana and Elisa are standing in the front hall. Zell and Squall are leaning against the railings of the stairs. Zone stands opposite the kitchen door, where Ana and Elisa are hovering, as though the oven timer might go off at any second. Selphie is admiring the gaudy glass figure of a swan swimming in a glass pool on the Coote's front table.

"Watts," she asks quietly, plucking at his sleeve, "What did you mean, 'if _you're_ going to leave town'?" Watts shakes his head.

"So what's your plan?" Ana asks.

Rinoa turns to Squall. "Is there somewhere safe you can take us?" He looks away. "Hey, this is an order from your client." she reminds him. (He probably still thinks they're too good for us…).

"Squall," Quistis says quietly "Garden Code, article eight, line seven."

"In the event that returning to the assigned Garden is not possible, report to the nearest Garden…" he mumbles, as if by reflex.

"Still my best student…" Quistis says, smiling. "From here that would be Galbaldia Garden."

"You can get there from the East Academy station, sir?" Watts asks quickly.

"It'll be a hike, but we can get there by passing through a forest, I've been there several times. We should be okay."

Rinoa began to feel relieved. Though Seifer's condition was still a mystery, theirs was starting to look more secure. A little bubble of hope rose in her sternum.

"The train system is being completely shut down, sir. The city is in a state of emergency, every entrance is guarded. More heavily than usual that is…" Watts says. The bubble of hope bursts and Rinoa feels a passing urge to throw the Cootes's ornate glass swan into a wall.

Watts smiles. "There's one train going from Auburn to Dollet, sir. It's stopping in Timber and East Academy, so it'll be here in half an hour, as scheduled. Zone and I got the last five tickets."

"Watts…that's why you're staying in Timber...?" Rinoa wants to hug him, but refrains, lest she embarrass him. Zone is fishing something out of his pocket. He hands a ticket to Rinoa,

"One for you…Three for you SeeD people; I'll give them to the leader, one for me."

Rinoa is filled with relief again. (Watts! Watts, you think of everything.) Then she notices how quiet the room is. Everyone is looking at Quistis, who shrinks unhappily against the wall. Zone looks up, the down at his ticket.

"Here, this one can be for you." he says, extending a hand to Quistis.

She shakes her head helplessly, "I can't take that. It's yours."

"You can't stay here. Besides, my stomach is acting up." Zone takes Quistis's hand and places the ticket in it. Then he takes a seat on the stairs. "I shouldn't travel like in this condition. You'd all better hurry, the train's leaving soon."

Quistis crouches down to Zone's level. "Thank you." He waves her off.

Rinoa sits beside Zone, and swallows a lump rising in her throat. "Zone," she says very quietly "we're going to see each other again, okay? We're gonna liberate Timber together."

"I'll be fine, you're such a nag," Zone jokes, with tears in his eyes. Watts and I will stay at my house. Rinoa puts her arms around his neck and buries her head in his shoulder, trying to memorize him. "Hurry up, you'll miss your train."

"Tell everyone goodbye…and thank you" Rinoa says helplessly to Watts, as the SeeDs bid their hosts polite goodbyes, and gather their weapons from a pile in the front hall.

"Take care of Rinoa!" Zone orders Squall on their way out.

They take a series of back alleys, at one point jumping several backyard fences to avoid the main streets, and reach the train station a minute after the train is scheduled to leave. When it arrives they have plenty of time to find a compartment, and pick one near the back. Rinoa notices that the SeeDs keep their weapons in the compartment with them, Squall's gunblade case under the table, Selphie's nunchaku slung over her shoulder. Quistis carries what seems to be a whip on her belt. (And I thought my weapon was useless…)

Selphie leaves the compartment as soon as everyone's sat down. Rinoa looks questioningly at Zell.

"She likes to look out the window…" he says vaguely, and then lays his head down on the compartment table. Rinoa wonders why she can't look out the compartment window.

The group gets settled as the engineer announces their departure from a scratchy PA system, with a small mounted speaker in each compartment. On one side, Squall stares pensively out the window and Quistis sits with her legs crossed and hands folded in her lap, the image of poise. On the other, Rinoa rests her head her knees, drawn up to her chest, and Zell lays his flat on the table. (The image of misery. What's wrong with him?)

Quistis: On the train ride to East Academy station it occurred to me that I'd normally be trying to make conversation with Squall, draw him out of his shell. Or maybe not, maybe only if we were alone. At least I would be getting a feel for what Rinoa was like, what I could expect from her. I felt I already had a good impression though – not that I didn't like her. She was just…distinctly threatening, and anyway I hadn't slept in a few days, and I spent most of the train ride in blissful unconsciousness.

I had been trailing Seifer since he broke out of the disciplinary room on Friday night, my night off, berating myself the whole time for dismissing the claims of other instructors and faculty that Seifer was mentally unstable and naturally violent. I'd be the first to admit that he was a troubled child and became a difficult adolescent, but I guess I was blinded by his extraordinary abilities; I didn't realize what he was capable of until I was chasing him through the streets of Balamb, hiding behind cars and taking backstreets. It must have been an entertaining chase for Balamb residents. When he boarded a train for Timber, I followed, took a compartment behind his, and phoned the headmaster. He said he would contact the Timber police department. I wondered aloud whether he shouldn't talk to the Galbaldian guard occupying Timber instead. He told me to take the next train back to Balamb and hung up.

The train ride was nerve-racking. I couldn't hear anything in the sections in front of or behind me, so I had to watch through a crack in the compartment door when we arrived early the next morning. I waited for a few more people to pass after seeing Seifer jostling through the crowd, and then left the train. Having slept, or rather, lay down for a few hours in my clothes, I must have looked about as confident as I felt.

The Timber police had obviously been given a picture of Seifer; they were questioning a tall, blonde man about ten years too old at the Timber train station. Seifer passed almost unnoticed and disappeared into the crowd, but one of the officers must have seen him, because in seconds a group of five was running through the crowded train station. I took off after the officers, along with a group of young children. He seemed to know his way around the city well-enough, though I can't imagine he'd ever been to Timber before. He made a few turns and burst into a crowded main street where we lost the curious children, and the police officers. A group of Galbaldian soldiers, soon joined by more to make about ten, stopped the Timber police, and both groups started shouting. I gathered that the Galbaldian guard wanted to know why they hadn't been informed of whatever the Timber police were doing, and the Timber police wanted to get through. I didn't wait to hear more and took off after Seifer.

It was late morning by now, and the sun glinted off the windows of tall buildings in the business district Seifer led me to. He seemed to be on a schedule (I would later determine that he'd planned to ambush Deling earlier, probably before he even reached the station) because he kept running, even after the Galbaldians had stopped his pursuers. I was more relieved than scared when he finally entered one of the buildings; my lungs were on fire. I went in about thirty seconds after he did, and then followed him up to the television studio, keeping a good twenty feet or a corner between us.

When the engineer's announcement finishes, Squall looks up suddenly from the window.

"Well…" he gestures vaguely "we made it."

"I have Zone to thank for that." Quistis answers after a moment, smoothing her blue ticket stub on the table.

Rinoa sighs inwardly. She'd promised Zone they would see each other again, but a numbness in her told her she would be away from Timber for a long time.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Hyne, this is out in the middle of nowhere" says Selphie, surveying the East Academy station. A set of cracked concrete steps descend down from the train platform to a square surrounded by a gas station, motel, diner, and tiny drugstore. The sun is setting behind a deserted highway on the other side of the buildings.

"Well," Quistis heaves an impatient sigh "We won't get to Galbaldia Garden by nightfall without a car…and I don't think we're going to be able to rent one…anywhere nearby."

Selphie offers to check out the motel. Zell quickly volunteers to go with her.

"I'm surprised they'd carry enough Gil on them for a motel," Rinoa wonders aloud. "Even this one…" she adds, looking over its crumbling exterior the light-up sign that reads Malbo o Mot l. "Malboro Motel? I've never even heard of it…"

"SeeDs on a job carry a credit card that draws from a sort of SeeD-stuck-in-the-middle-of-nowhere account for emergencies and job-related purchases…garden policy." Quistis explains.

"Sounds easy to take advantage of."

"Employing of a card for personal use is the last thing you'll do as a SeeD. Every card is monitored and compared to a report given to garden administration periodically or upon conclusion of an assignment…which reminds me, Squall, when did you last report to Cid?"

Squall is staring stonily at a cigarette butt on the ground, wearing what Rinoa has privately begun to call his "floor face". "The evening before Seifer attacked Deling, we haven't had much downtime since then."

Rinoa feels privately guilty. (It's my fault they haven't had time to make a report, or eat a decent meal since this morning. And that Seifer came to Timber…and that he might be dead now.)

The SeeDs check into two two-person rooms in the Malboro Motel. Zell and Squall stay in the smaller one, Rinoa, Quistis and Selphie in a connected room that's a little bit bigger, and has a fold-up cot in the closet. The rooms are small, the windows are dirty, the wallpaper is peeling, and the shower water is either boiling or freezing, but to Rinoa it feels like a safe haven.

They check out at eleven the next morning and begin the walk to Galbaldia garden, going away from both the train tracks and the highway.

Rinoa: I've been camping in monitored outdoor areas before, but I've never seen the "untamed wild" as Ari called it, except out the windows of trains and airplanes. The SeeDs seemed right at home though; everyone looked better after a long sleep except for Zell, who was still dragging his feet and not talking. Selphie on the other hand skipped periodically and hummed a song about trains from a commercial for Galbaldia Railways. She chatted to me candidly about life in the Garden circuit, when she wasn't skipping or singing.

Apparently Seifer had been right in telling me that Balamb Garden's SeeDs were the only military program in the world to make use of the GF. Other mercenary programs with longer histories than Garden (a veritable infant in the military business, but a hugely successful one) just hadn't caught on to the difference long-term junctions made in a soldier's capabilities. They would, eventually, Selphie assured me, change their programs to accommodate for new technology. Selphie was much more of an intellectual than she appeared at first.

"I actually didn't always plan to join the SeeD program" she confided "I transferred to Balamb from Trabia Garden after a post-graduation seminar on our career options. As a magic specialist, basically I could be a SeeD, a garden instructor or join the Galbaldian military."

We spent much of the walk talking about the politics of Galbaldia's aggressiveness, my father, and my work with the resistance movement, as well the Gardens, GF junctioning, and magic. I told her how I'd always been fascinated by the idea of GF summoning and the magic casting I saw on television, and by the time we reached Roshfall forest, a clump of trees separating the Timber area and Galbaldia Garden, she was trying to wheedle Squall into letting her teach me some basic spells.

"We weren't hired to teach magic." Squall said firmly.

"It's not illegal or anything! I think she'd be good at it. I just get that vibe. C'mon Squall!"

Squall stopped walking and was silent for what seemed like hours. "…fine. But don-"

We didn't get to hear what Selphie shouldn't do, because a Wendigo landed on Squall. Out on the planes, the fauna – geezards and bite bugs – had stayed clear of us for the most part, encouraged by fire or blizzard spells cast at a distance by the SeeDs. The Wendigo didn't seem wary at all. It dropped out of a tree knocked Squall to the ground, making hooting sounds. It looked like a monster from my eighth grade history book called a "gorilla". The SeeDs leaped at it right away, but I was standing closest to him and got there first. I slashed it on the back with the side of my blaster edge. It leaped off of Squall, who had drawn his gunblade, and onto me, though I stayed standing.

"Rinoa, get away from it!" someone shouted, Quistis I think, but it was grabbing onto my neck and scratching and kicking me with its feet. Squall grabbed it around the middle and ripped it away, taking some of my hair with it, threw it to the ground, and drove his gunblade into it with frightening, violent efficiency. I turned away, my chest hurting from the Wendigo's kicks and feeling nauseated from the sight of the impaled monster on the ground.

I half expected Squall to thank me for getting it off of him, but instead he told me, wiping his blade with a rag from its case,

"Unless a monster attacks you directly, do your best to get away from it so we can kill it without worrying about hurting you."

I must have looked disappointed because he added "…sorry. I should have told you earlier."

"It's okay," Selphie assured me quietly "you did fine."

We stopped to rest and eat lunch – leftover pasta from the diner at East Academy Station. I wished we could have kept walking for a mile or two; the dead Wendigo didn't do much for my appetite. I was repulsed and strangely fascinated by it, lying in the grass with its gray fur in matted, bloody clumps and its limbs twisted at odd angles. Against my better judgment, I went to look at it. I felt sort of sorry for it. Wendigo are territorial, we were probably invading its home. How often did anyone pass through this little forest? The path was barely visible under the overgrowth. I hid my nose in the crook of my arm as I neared the body, but when I was close enough to see its individual, leathery fingers and glassy, empty eyes, I felt compelled to touch it. I think I planned to press its forehead, as one traditionally does for the dead. At least that's where I tapped it, and as soon as I did I felt a rush of sensation from my forefinger to the rest of my body and a burst of pain in my head, that was gone in a second. I staggered away from the carcass and backed into a tree, feeling no closure, but more nausea. I leaned on the tree, breathing quietly and trying not to throw up.

"Rinoa, what are you doing?" Quistis called from the clearing where the SeeDs were packing empty take-out boxes into cheap backpacks, purchased that morning at the drugstore. I wanted to say "nothing" but I didn't trust myself to open my mouth.

Selphie came to retrieve me. "Gross, why are you looking at that?"

I told her about the head pain and nausea and she brought me back to the clearing, grinning like she'd brought me back victorious from the Triple Triad world championships, instead of from a dead, soon-to-be-rotting carcass.

"I think Rinoa junctioned an avatar!" she announced.

As the party continues through the forest, Selphie talks excitedly, and endlessly to Riona.

"It doesn't happen very often you know" she informs her, with a tone that suggests Rinoa must not be ungrateful for her still aching head and queasy stomach.

"Most people have to learn to draw before they can junction, but I told you, you have that vibe! Or maybe you just hit a really good match with your avatar, that can happen too. This is so exciting, now I _have_ to teach you to cast! Have you thought about what you're going to name it?"

Rinoa hasn't thought about what to name it, and isn't even sure she wants it. According to Quistis, getting rid of an avatar is easy, but should be done in a magic lab.

"Galbaldia Garden's focus is weapons technology, and their magic program is rumored to be a little shady. You should probably wait until you can get to Balamb garden." she advises "Otherwise you can get some unpleasant physical symptoms, as you've seen…"

Even habitually quiet Squall has something to say about Rinoa's avatar, showing her the section on GF use in his pocket-sized, electronic SeeD handbook ("You carry that thing around with you!" says Selphie in amazement). Only Zell is quiet, having become more so the farther he travels from Timber.

The next time the group stops to rest, at what would be dinner time if they had any food left, Rinoa reads what Squall's handbook has to say on avatars.

_The guardian force (also called GF or avatar) is a staple of the SeeD program. A being made of energy of a magical nature, guardian forces were rumored to be bestial servants of the goddess Hyne by the ancient Centurians. Today, the origins of the guardian force are largely unexplained. Our knowledge of the use of the GF in a junction/draw system is extensive by comparison. Most of our information is based on the subjective reports of SeeD hosts and the few scientists who junction GF. What we do know, is that with a store of magical energy in one's body, even without the ability or expertise required to cast it, a junctioned guardian force will use that energy to strengthen the body of its host, be it monster, human, or its own body, independent of a junctioned being._

_ For more information on mythology and origins of the guardian force, see the SeeD tutorial, section 2A. For information on the junction/draw system, see section 2B. For information…_

Rinoa begins skimming lines until the word "summoning" catches her eye.

_The summoning of a guardian force is described by many as an "out of body" experience, and is usually reserved for emergencies, depletes the physical energy of the host, or summoner, and requires up to two minutes of uninterrupted concentration, leaving the summoner vulnerable to attack in a conflict situation. Though meditation and concentration exercises can help, the most effective way to speed the summoning of a guardian force is by repeated successful summons._

_A guardian force can exist as an independent entity while junctioned to a host for up to about thirty seconds, long enough for it to provide whatever aid it can to its summoner. Some guardian forces are destructive; some heal or enhance the abilities their hosts. For more on guardian force families, see section…_

Rinoa skipped several screens of information about the different classifications of GF, which ends with,

_Remember, your guardian force is unique. Treat him or her with respect and patience as you gain experience and learn new skills together! _(Cheesy…)

_MHS:_

_When the magical energy of a junctioned guardian force fuses with high enough levels of animal adrenaline, the result is a temporary state of enhanced ability, unique to every host-guardian force pair, often compared to a "runner's high". Mountains have been moved and valleys carved with the force of a magical-hormonal synthesis, or "limit break". The enhanced abilities come in as many varieties as people and guardian forces, but they tend to reflect the hosts abilities and habitual activities under normal circumstances, and the tendencies of the guardian force. For example, a regular practitioner of magic casting may find that their MHS increases his concentration, the strength of his spells, or the speed or ease of his casting or drawing. Weapons specialists often repost increased strength, speed, and stamina. _

_There is a dark side to these enhancements. They are only temporary, and when adrenaline levels return to normal, the body is often exhausted or even severely damaged, the MHS and adrenaline itself repressing pain stimulus. For more information on MHS…_

Rinoa closes the pocket-sized handbook and hands it back to Squall, who's sitting on a stump.

"Have you ever used an MHS?"

"A what?" Selphie asks from her perch on a low tree branch.

"Limit Break" says Squall "No, I haven't."

"I have!" Selphie volunteers.

She launches into an explanation of her limit break, a skill called "spell-slotting" common among magic users that allows them to cast chains of spells in rapid succession.

"I used it for the first time in Dollet, during our field exam. Now I can just kind of make it happen sometimes, you know, in the heat of the moment. And Quistis can do it to, right Quistis?"

Quistis is sorting shaking her backpack. The pasta sauce from one of the East Academy Diner boxes seeped through the cardboard.

"Yes?" she says irritably.

"You've used a limit? Yeah, Quistis uses Blue Magic." she says impressively.

Rinoa raises her eyebrows.

"It's a really rare branch of para-magic. Basically you copy spells that monsters use."

(Selphie sure talks a lot.)

The group keeps walking late into the evening. Every hour or so Quistis assures them "We're not too far from garden now!"

"I was just thinking," Selphie ventures after the third assurance "there might be some bad news from the Galbaldian government when we get there. What if we get caught, and then broadcast to the whole world!" She makes a slit-throat gesture across her neck.

"Whatever happens, happens, let's just keep going!" Zell snaps. Rinoa and the other SeeDs look up. "I'm…worried about Balamb garden. If anything happens to it, it's my fault." (No,) Rinoa thinks guiltily (It's my fault). "I'm the one who said we were all from Garden...You think the president will retaliate?"

Squall shrugs "It's possible."

(Don't say that. Poor Zell, that's why he's been so quiet.)

"But…we have so many off-duty SeeDs at Balamb garden. They wouldn't lose to the Galbalian army, would they?" Quistis looks uncomfortable. Selphie sighs and leans on a tree.

"It depends on the size of the army."

(Hyne…you can't even…)

Quistis clears her throat. "We should get going. We need to get to Galbaldia Garden before dark…"

Zell shakes his head and storms past the others, following the overgrown path. Quistis and Selphie follow him.

Rinoa purses her lips, and turns to follow Selphie, changes her mind, and turns back to Squall.

"Would it kill you to be supportive of Zell? Do you really enjoy acting so…callous towards your comrades? You're supposed to be the leader of this…thing…"

Rinoa sighs and turns. Zell, Selphie and Quistis are almost out of sight in the overgrowth. (We're all cold and tired and hungry and worried, but you can't…act like that…) she turns back to Squall.

"Any encouragement will make…Squall are you even listening?"

Squall's cynical, accepting expression is now surprised. He puts his gloved hands over his ears and drops to his knees on the path. From ahead of them, Rinoa can hear Zell say "Hyne…Shit!"

Rinoa kneels next to Squall and puts a hand gingerly on his arm. His eyes are squeezed shut, his hands still clamped over his ears as if to shut out a loud noise.

"Squall?"

Squall slumps to the ground in a faint. Rinoa's eyes widen. "Squall?"

Zell returns to the clearing carrying Selphie's unconscious body. Rinoa is still kneeling over Squall, holding his limp wrist in a shaking hand.

"He has a pulse; he's alive," she reports over her shoulder. "He just fainted…I don't know what happened."

"I think it's okay, this has happened before."

"What?"

"Hang on, I'll be back."

Zell lays Selphie down off the side of the path, with her head in the grass. Rinoa leaves Squall and bends over Selphie. Her normally pink cheeks are matte and white, and her flipped hair is disheveled and full of dry leaves. Rinoa carefully removes the leaves and takes Selphie's pulse. Like Squall's, it isn't even faint. Zell returns with Quistis slung over his shoulder like a sack. Rinoa laughs in spite of herself. Quistis's backpack hangs over her head like a small animal clinging to her unconscious form. Zell sets her carefully next to Selphie.

"What happened to them?"

"I think they went to the 'dreamworld'".


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"The what?"

Zell sighs and sits with his back against a tree, next to Selphie. He looks sadly over her still form. Rinoa sits in the grass, drawing her knees up to her chest. Zell starts to speak, stops, and goes back staring at Selphie. Finally, he says,

"When we were on the train from Balamb, me, Selphie, and Squall, we were in a private cabin. SeeD has perks." He laughs humorlessly. "Anyway, a few minutes into the ride we all passed out. For me and Selphie it just felt like we got…really sleepy and then fell asleep. Squall said he heard a ringing in his ears and then fainted. We figured that someone had planted sleeping gas in the cabin or something – there are a lot of people who resent SeeD."

Squall's arm twitched and he turned onto his side. (They're sleeping?)

"Yeah, so when we woke up, Selphie mentioned having this crazy dream about a Galbaldian soldier from about twenty years ago, before the sorceress war. She dreamed that she was this Galbaldian soldier, her name, well, his name was Kiros. But the weird part is, I had a dream too – the same dream – except from a different point of view, you know? I was a friend of Kiros's named Ward. I don't know what he looks like, because I was seeing everything from his perspective, and everything was really clear, not like a normal dream. Squall had the same dream, he was our squad leader, Laguna. And we all had exactly the same dream, but from different perspectives, you understand?"

Rinoa doesn't understand.

"How could you be seeing the same thing if you were unconscious? Are you sure you weren't…awake somehow?"

"No, I'm telling you, we were…well it doesn't matter, they'll tell you…when they wake up."

"How long will that take?"

"Not sure, the train ride was a couple hours long. We might have to spend the night out here." Zell sounds miserable. "Hyne…this sucks."

"You must be pretty worried."

Zell stares at the ground for a minute. "When Seifer attacked Deling, Squall and Selphie and I ran into the station to stop him. Quistis was there, she'd followed Seifer from Balamb. We were all from Balamb garden, but I was the one who said it. I said 'Instructor, you're going to take this idiot back to garden, right?'" Zell drops his head into his arms, looking completely defeated. "And Deling said that if anything happened to him, Galbaldia would 'crush garden'."

Rinoa traces her fingers up and down the chain of her necklace.

"Those exact words?"

"Well…not those exact words but close…"

"But you didn't mention 'Balamb'…if you just called it 'garden', it will take Deling a while to figure out _which_ garden, even if he does hold you responsible. His first thought will probably be that you were some kind of rebellious hippies from Galbaldia Garden, it's closest to Timber."

Zell lifts his head and rests his chin on his forearm. "They'll figure out eventually which garden we were from…they'll contact the whole garden circuit…"

"Yes, but the paperwork will take a while. You know Galbaldians…bureaucrats to the core."

For the first time in several days, Zell smiles in amusement.

"Aren't you Galbaldian?"

"I'm insulted." Rinoa deadpans "I meant the Galbaldian government. I'm only Galbaldian by blood!"

Zell laughs. "With your criminal record, it'd be hard to mistake you for one of them."

"What are you? You look like you could be Galbaldian. With darker hair and lighter skin."

"I could well be; I don't know what I am. I was adopted when I was about seven or eight. Don't remember much of anything before then…"

"You don't remember your childhood?"

Zell shrugs. "I came to garden when I was thirteen; trying to be like my grandfather. He was a soldier. I don't remember much before that except that I lived in Balamb with my parents…"

Quistis stirs and brings a hand to her throat. (I wonder what she's dreaming about?) The sun is completely gone, and the stars and full moon filter through the leaves over head, providing only dim light. Rinoa shivers and curls up tighter, shielding herself from the wind with her backpack. Zell seems comfortable. He stretches out next to the unconscious women and looks up at the stars through a gap in the trees overhead.

"I'll keep watch until they wake up. You can go to sleep if you want."

"It's too cold to sleep." Rinoa says grumpily.

"Here, catch." Zell tosses her his black and red jacket.

"It's fine, you keep it."

"No, I'm warm enough."

Rinoa wraps herself gratefully in the oversize jacket and curls up against the base of a tree. They sit in silence, listening to humming crickets and the swishing of wind in the trees for a few minutes. (It's so peaceful out here.)

"What was the dream about?"

"The dream?"

"That you all had on the train…"

"Oh, yeah. It was weird. We were three soldiers scouting ahead for a larger section of the Galbaldian army. We were actually supposed to be fighting the Timber army, back when there was one, but Laguna, the leader, got us lost. Anyway we found our way back to Laguna's home town, Deling city. That's where you grew up, right?"

"Sort of, I spent most of the year in Timber at a boarding school."

"Gotcha. Well, Laguna was originally from Deling city, Kiros and Ward were from…I don't know. Somewhere else in Galbaldia, I guess. We all went to this hotel in the city and heard a woman play the piano. Laguna was in love with her – Julia – and he finally worked up the nerve to talk to her the night we were there. So uh… they went up to her hotel room." Zell's voice smacks of innuendo. "And Kiros and I hung downstairs. Then we got a report for Laguna saying we had been 'reassigned to another area'. Kiros went upstairs to get Laguna, and then we all woke up."

"You didn't find it…odd?"

"Of course we thought it was 'odd', but what could we do? We decided to put the incident on hold until we could make an official report to garden. I think Squall's already written to Cid about it."

Rinoa yawns and buries her head under the sleeve of Zell's jacket.

"You know what's funny…?"

Zell doesn't answer. He's snoring softly.

(My mom was a pianist named Julia …when Squall wakes up I'll tell him I'm sorry…I said too much…)

Quistis: When I woke up, in the very early morning or very late night, depending on your view, I could still feel the memory of burning heat and pain in my throat where Ward was stabbed. Squall was already awake, and Selphie was stirring.

According to them, and to Zell, this unusually clear, linear dream about Galbaldian soldiers was not a first time occurrence. Both Squall and Selphie had dreamed that they were patrolling an area in Esthar called the "Lunatic Pandora", a strange maze of green and blue crystal, machines, and an indoor greenhouse. Judging by our outdated uniforms and equipment, our dream took place sometime before the end of the sorceress war. I dreamed I was a seven-foot-tall man. As in most dreams, the idea didn't seem strange to me. I used an old "combat anchor" as it was aptly nicknamed.

Just before I woke up, I dreamed that an Estharian soldier's blade was slicing into the skin of my throat. After that I drifted in and out of consciousness, and the last thing I remembered was being pulled aboard a Galbaldian ship, and the sight of my dated

uniform, soaked with seawater and stained brown with my blood.

We reached Galbaldia garden at about nine in the morning, and were given rooms in the deserted guest dormitories. We all took showers, washed our dirt encrusted clothes, and slept for most of the day.

I've been to Galbaldia garden several times, most recently for an instructors' conference last year. That was before I lost my teaching license, a painfully fresh memory that was stirred up by the sight of the garden's main hall, lit by huge floorlights, with halls leading to each of the four garden branches. Outside the wide windows, flew by in small, one-man hovering crafts that looked like deep, seatless chairs, a specialty of G-Garden's.

Headmaster Martine, the youngest major in the Galbaldian army before Deling's "bloodless coup", took a particular interest in me during my first visit, which he didn't seem to have lost over the last year. He guided me by the elbow as we circled the main hall of the garden the next day. His brown hair had grown in the year since I'd seen him, and was now pulled into a short ponytail at the nape of his neck. He still dressed like a military official, in a long, old fashioned blue coat, pressed white shirt, and black combat boots. He smelled like fish and after-shave.

"Quistis Trepe! The most promising young instructor of her time. And female, to boot! It's been much too long." he said when we met at the entrance to the guest rooms, with all the sincerity of a student trying to get out of a field exam.

I explained our situation as we strolled around the bright floor, interrupted periodically by salutations for the headmaster and curious looks for me. He nodded occasionally, and returned the interruptions with disingenuously personal greetings: "Hello there instructor, good to see you. Ah, Valentine, nose in a book as usual, I see! My apologies, Ms. Trepe," he would say, graciously turning back to me "You were saying…?"

When I'd finished, we had completed two laps around the main hall and come back to the entrance to the guest dormitories. "Well," he said finally "you certainly have been through a lot in the past few days. And shown a great deal of dedication to the well-being of your students. I would be proud to employ such a courageous and responsible instructor. You've always shown so much promise…" I stared at my feet, feeling ridiculed. I told him I'd lost my instructors' license a few weeks ago. The night of Squall's inauguration into SeeD, I realized. As he moving up into the ranks of SeeD, I'd been demoted down into it.

"I see, well that's certainly Cid's loss. If you ever want to reapply, you know, my door is always open to you." He gave me a look of compassionate understanding that could have curdled milk. He cleared his throat. "I heard about the attack on Deling on the radio. A most unfortunate occurrence, but I have been in contact with Cid, as has headmaster Griffin, over the past 48 hours, and he assures me that the student's attack, despite his being a legal adult, was classified as an independent action. The garden circuit will not be held responsible. Now, I understand that the other three SeeDs with you are under contract with the young woman traveling with you, but that she is unable to return to Timber at present. In light of recent events, you and the three SeeDs with you will be carrying out a separate mission in her hometown." I was surprised, and a little overwhelmed at the idea of a new assignment so soon after our flight from Timber. Not to mention, I was still trying to process my strange dream about the Galbaldian soldiers. "Headmaster Martine, we only got back from Timber, what? 24 hours ago?"

"I understand, Quistis." he assured me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I twitched with an involuntary urge to give him a good shove. "But, such is the life of a mercenary." He leaned in close enough for me to count the pores on his nose and smell his fishy breath. I held mine. "Could you have the SeeDs meet in the reception room at, say two this afternoon? You've been there before, I presume?" I nodded, and took a deep breath as he finally backed away. "Well then, I'll see you at 1400…"

"Headmaster?" It killed me to call him back. "A member of the Forest Owls - the resistance faction came with us from Timber."

"Yes, Ms. Heartilly. Have her come as well." He turned on his heel and marched off, his military coat ballooning behind him.

Rinoa is woken by a familiar voice from above her.

"Rinoa? Wake up!"

Selphie's smiling face comes into focus. Rinoa groans and pulls the sheet over her head, more to be funny than to go back to sleep. She feels surprisingly well-rested. And it feels good to be clean, after a night in the woods under Zell's jacket.

Selphie tugs on the bottom of the sheet and Rinoa sits up obligingly, wearing her black tanktop and a pair of turquoise hospital pants lent to her by the garden's nurse's assistant.

"Quistis talked to the headmaster, we're supposed to meet him at two." Rinoa looks at the digital alarm clock next to the bed. It's nine. (We've been here for two nights already…no wonder I'm well rested.) She vaguely remembers a nurse giving her a pair of pants and two sleeping pills.

"I talked to Squall, and he gave me the go ahead, not that he was fully awake, but he said it was alright, if I start teaching you some casting!"

Rinoa is out of bed immediately. "That's great! What do I need? I should probably get dressed first, just a sec…"

Rinoa grabs her clothes, dumped carelessly in a pile at the end of the bed, and carries them into the tiny bathroom connected to the room. While she changes clothes, Selphie moves the furniture – a simple bed, a desk, and a chest of drawers – to the corners of the room.

"I figured we'd start with just very basic control of magical energies, you won't be able to actually cast anything yet. But once you start meditating, you'll be casting low-level spells in a few weeks!" Selphie calls through the door.

When Rinoa emerges, dressed in her blue duster, Selphie is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room. She motions for Rinoa to sit down to.

"Okay, so first you have to relax your body and try to empty your mind."

Rinoa closes her eyes and tries to relax. A fly buzzes in a corner of the room. She tries to resist the need to brush her hair out of her eyes.

"Now, see if you can feel your guardian force in the back of your mind, because that's where your storing any magical energy you have right now. By the way, have you decided what to name it yet?"

Rinoa opens one eye.

"Never mind, go back to relaxing. Anyway, when you really center yourself you should be able to feel a presence in the back of your mind that isn't really a part of it. It's weird at first, but you get used to it."

For the hour, Selphie guides Rinoa through different mental concentration exercises, periodically stopping to talk snack on apples and bagels Selphie brought up from the cafeteria. By the end of the second hour, Rinoa is able draw magical energy from Selphie's mind, which feels very strange.

"It's like I'm stealing from you!"

Selphie laughs. "It's how we transfer energy, and also how we get it from monsters. Do you feel any different?"

"Different? From when?"

"Since you junctioned your GF. It should have started using energy to strengthen your body, reflexes, all that."

"I don't feel anything yet."

"Well, you will, once you draw some more. Just draw from monsters whenever you get the chance. The stronger the monster, in general, the greater the strength of the energy you draw, and the easier it is to turn it into higher level spells. It's all really simple once you get the hang of it."

"Can I try casting a spell?"

Selphie laughs again, this time with a hint of patronization. "You won't be ready for that for a week or two. Just meditate and do those exercises everyday for like, fifteen minutes. I can teach you others too, focusing all your energy on an idea or an object, listening to music and trying to concentrate on the rhythm and different melody lines at the same time, but the basis is meditation – just thinking about nothing."

"It all sounds so exotic."

"Yeah, it's pretty exciting. Hey, I'd better go get ready to meet the headmaster. I wonder what he wants to tell us."

"No clue, probably just touching base. Well, I'll see you in a few."

"Okay, see you there!"

Selphie closes the door behind her. Rinoa got up and begins to push the chest of drawers back to the rectangular indentation in the carpet that marked where it had been. Despite taking longer to learn than she had imagined, Rinoa is excited about learning magic, much more so than she was about accidentally acquiring an avatar. Selphie's concentration exercises felt strange at first, but quickly came naturally to her.

When the furniture is back in its original arrangement, Rinoa sits on the unmade bed, closes her eyes and concentrates on her breath until she loses herself in it. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. It's so peaceful not to think about anything. Inhale, exhale. _Hello Rinoa, _says a soft, tenor voice. Rinoa's eyes snap open and she looks behind her, before realizing that the voice was in her own mind. Feeling shaken, Rinoa turns back around and concentrates on her breathing again, this time listening intently. _I am the water snake. I am the guardian of the dragon goddess. _A knock interrupts the melodic voice. Rinoa gestures in frustration. (No, don't leave!)

"Rinoa!" Zell calls through the door "Meeting in the reception room, we're all meeting in the hall in five."

"Okay!" she shouts back. Zell's footsteps retreat. Rinoa punches her pillow and gets up from

the bed. "Fine." she mutters. Though the voice is gone, Rinoa knows the name of the speaker, almost intuitively. Or maybe she made it up? Leviathan. The water snake.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Quistis leads the SeeDs up to the reception room, on the fourth floor. The guest dormitories are on the ground floor, and unlike Balamb garden, Selphie points out, they don't have elevators.

"The building doesn't meet handicap regulations." she complains, halfway up the winding set of stairs."

"Well, there's an elevator between the second and fourth floors, but it requires a card key, otherwise it would be swarmed with students." says Quistis. "There's one instructor in a wheelchair, Jason. He flies from the ground floor the outside exits of the first and second in those flying chairs you saw outside."

Selphie giggles. "I wonder why they painted that like, robin's egg blue color."

"They're pansies." Zell says cheerfully. He's been in high spirits since learning of the independent classification of the attack on Deling. "We take out his body double and try to kidnap him in the middle of a speech on international television. I'm so amazed th-"

Quistis turns sharply, looks up and down the staircase, then edges past Rinoa to face Zell. "The contract between Balamb garden and the Forest Owls was confidential, and it needs to remain so." she says quietly. Zell starts to argue, thinks better of it, and nods. The rest of the walk to the reception room is silent.

The reception room is comfortably furnished with two couches facing each other, a coffee table bearing a vase of artificial flowers and several magazines with articles about Galbaldia Garden between them. Selphie stands in front of a window, surveying the view from the fourth floor. Zell, Selphie and Rinoa take seats on the couches, and Quistis and Squall stand, leaning on a couch, one hand on her hip, Squall with his arms folded.

"Quistis," Zell asks after a minute, "Did the headmaster say whether Seifer…" he trails off into a silence heavy with implication.

Quistis sighs. "The trial is over and the sentence has been carried out."

Rinoa doubles over, feeling as though someone punched her in the stomach. Selphie sits next to her and puts and arm around her, which Rinoa ignores. (You can trace the whole wretched thing back to me. I'm a murderer. That's ridiculous, I didn't ask Seifer to come here…I just…gave him the information and the motivation he needed. He came to help us. And that woman, the sorceress. Is she dead too, did she help Seifer? Or did she…make him let Deling go? I killed him, it traces back to me.)

"He was executed." she says calmly. "Of course he was, he attacked the president. He sacrificed himself for the 'Forest Owls'…"

Quistis shakes her head. "It was your group that got Seifer involved in all this. You're a resistance faction, right? You must have been prepared for the worst. I'm sure Seifer was, too." Rinoa isn't listening. She pulls her feet up to her chest and rests her chin on her knees. "I'm sorry…I guess that wasn't much consolation."

"I didn't like the guy, but…executed?" Zell says helplessly.

"I don't have any good memories of him." says Quistis "his rivalry with Squall…" (Squall and Seifer were rivals?) "The two most talented students in Garden. I've seen troubled children but he was beyond troubled. Well, we were the same age. I guess he wasn't really a bad guy. (Troubled child? Most talented students…Quistis is only 18?) Rinoa feels an unreasonable urge to laugh. She calms down. (I feel more guilty than sad. I guess I kind of already knew, I just didn't want to think about it.)

"I…really liked him." Rinoa admits. "He was always full of confidence, smart. Just by talking to him I felt like I could take on the world."

"Your boyfriend?" Selphie asks.

(Were we dating, when we were seeing each other everyday? Maybe…)

"I don't really know. I think I was in love…I wonder how he felt."

"Do you still like him?" Selphie asks. (You are merciless…yes.)

"If I didn't I wouldn't be talking about it. It was last summer; I was 16. Lots of fond memories…" (And there were. Quistis may not have had any good memories of Seifer, but I do. Walking on the pier and getting so drunk we tried to swim down the hallway…Fujin and Rajin. Where are they?)

But there is also the memory of Seifer's white knuckles on his gunblade handle when he told the sorceress that he was not a boy, and the grip of his hand on her shoulder as he left. In his grip and his expression, which had always been confident and comforting, there was something unfamiliar – fear.

"He's pretty late," Quistis remarks, checking her watch.

As if on cue, the door opens and the headmaster sweeps in, his long coat billowing. The SeeDs stand robotically and salute him simultaneously, bringing their feet together and their right hands to the sides of their heads, elbows tucked in neatly. Rinoa imitates them as best she can.

"At ease."

The SeeDs stand with what looks like anything but ease to Rinoa, with their hands clasped behind their backs and their feet wide apart. Martine gives an amused smile to Rinoa and a knowing look to Quistis. He paces the length of the room, returns to the SeeDs gathered around the couches, and sighs, as if unsure how to begin, though it's clear to Rinoa that he has a speech already in mind.

"Good day. I have here official orders from headmaster Cid addressed to Squall Leonheart." He withdraws a sealed manila envelope embossed with the SeeD emblam from a pocket in his endless coat. Squall steps forwards to take the envelope. "You're Squall Leonheart?" he confirms. Squall nods. (No, he's Vinzer Deling. In disguise. What's with these SeeD formalities?)

"Following regulations, I have reviewed these orders. After careful consideration of our options, we have decided to fully assist and cooperate with Headmaster Cid. Actually, we too, have been planning for this quite some time now." Martine begins pacing again, drawing out the suspense of his announcement. (Well, it won't do much for me, at least. I don't really give a shit what you have to say…)

"In order to stress the importance of this mission, I must first brief you on the current situation. You all know that a sorceress of indeterminate background was recently appointed a peace ambassador for the Galbaldian government." He shakes his head gravely. (Melodrama…)

"However, this appointment is merely a cover up. There will be no peace talks, only threats." Martine runs a hand along his greasy scalp and flicks his ponytail from his coat. "The sorceress creates fear among people. Therefore, peace talks are impossible. Galbaldia is planning to use this fear to negotiate favorable conditions for itself."

Martine pauses, puffs out his chest, and braces himself for the climax of the speech. Rinoa rolls her eyes inwardly. (Maybe cynicism is a lesser known stage of grief?) "It has become increasingly clear that Galbaldia's ultimate goal…is world domination. Garden is no exception. It is a fact that the sorceress is planning to use this Garden as her base...We have very few options available to us."

The headmaster pauses again, this time to let his statements register. Quistis, and oddly, Selphie, take the news in stride. Rinoa, the daughter of the general of the Galbaldian army with an active interest in politics, is not taken aback either. Galbaldia's political moves for the past four or five years have pointed towards a major conquest. The boys are more surprised. Zell's jaw drops, though he has the sense not to talk, and even Squall raises his eyebrows.

"We entrust world peace and the future to you. Details of the mission are enclosed in these official orders. Any questions?" (A few. Why them? Inexperienced SeeDs who've just returned from another mission, exhausted, and slept for two days to recover? And what are you going to do with me? Why am I here?)

"Sir," Squall says quietly "what about Ms. Heartilly?"

(Oh, now I'm Miss Heartilly! Well you and your fucking SeeD official procedures can all go to hell, Misters Leonheart and Martine. Damn it! Dammit dammit dammit!) Rinoa envisions herself hurling the vase of plastic flowers at the headmaster, overturning the coffee table, punching out the window overlooking the rolling plains of the Galbaldian east coast…

"Ah yes." Martine straightens his coat collar importantly. "Because she cannot return to Timber at the present time, you will escort Ms. Heartilly back to her residence in Deling city."

The headmaster leaves the room, and Rinoa sinks to her knees on the floor, weeping into her sleeve.

Zell: We stayed one more day at Galbaldia Garden after we got our assignment. Squall poured over the orders from Cid for freaking hours on end. Quistis slept for most of the day saying she had a headache, but I think that was to get out of a private "getting re-acquainted" dinner in the headmaster's office. Selphie and Rinoa spent most of it holed up in Rinoa's room. Selphie was teaching her about magical theory. I visited several times to look for a jacket I hadn't lost, relay a message I knew Squall had delivered himself, and check the time on the pretense that the clock in my room had stopped, each time staying for several minutes to talk. Rinoa was beautiful, but that was too intimidating. Besides, I'd been flirting with Selphie since our field exam, and I thought she was starting to warm up to me.

When Selphie had Rinoa start meditating, for which she needed complete silence, I got down to some serious research. I may not seem like the type, but I'm known in my hometown as an insufferable know-it-all. I don't follow politics though, and the headmaster's bit about Galbaldia planning to take over the world was news to me. As I read through modern history books and online articles about the appointment of the sorceress as an ambassador, patterns started to emerge. Deling's presidency (or dictatorship, as the more left-wing articles called it) had become steadily more tyrannical since his election three years ago, and Galbaldia's policy in occupied areas, more controlling.

The sorceress was a mystery. Though the articles I found described her in great detail – her traditional dress, her refusal to speak to reporters, and her incredible mastery over magic – they said nothing about her origins. It was as though she had appeared on the political map overnight. No age, nationality, or even a last name was given. She just went by "Edea".

I printed out some of the articles to give to Squall. He was reading our mission description for the seventy-zillionth time. When I got to his room, Selphie and Rinoa were already there. I was pretty surprised; Squall is not really a social guy, but it turned out he'd gathered them to brief us on the mission. After the we-entrust-the-future-to-you speech, I was really curious about what we were going to do. I stood in a corner, since the girls were taking up the bed, and Squall was in the only chair. Quistis had been looking for me. When she got back, I assumed we would start, but Squall kept shuffling through his papers. Selphie and Rinoa about Rinoa's lessons and Quistis kept checking her watch. I figured that, like me, she was wondering what Squall was waiting for. Finally she said,

"He's really late…"

I told her I was right here, but she brushed me off, saying

"No, not you. A G-Garden student is going to go with us."

"A student? On a SeeD assignment? Is that even legal?"

Quistis shrugged, like legality didn't really matter, as long as he was on time. Incidentally, Irvine Kinneas's participation in the mission was clearly against Garden's policies, but then I think a lot of regulations were broken in connection with that mission.

Guns have been obsolete since the 20s, when HS personal shields became widely available and every other form of injuring people from martial arts to swordsmanship exploded in popularity. The nature of warfare, self-defense, and the drug trade were revolutionized, but the long and short of it is, the shields were developed zoologists, not weapons specialists, who were busy trying to invent a gun that could shoot monsters. The zoologists in northern Esthar studied monsters' inborn protection against gunfire. I won't go into the laws of electromagnetism, but monsters are defined by their protective shielding against objects moving at a certain speed, ranging from about 300 m/s to up to 600 m/s in smaller monsters. They duplicated that protection for human use, and by 1030, the little boxes that clip to a belt were being manufactured in bright patterns and colors to appeal to young children. Of course, some people choose not to wear the shields, normal guns being so outdated that the risk of being shot in some cities is virtually zero.

By "best shooter in the garden", Irvine meant that he was an excellent sniper. A sniper rifle was invented in the late 30s that penetrates HS personal shields, and to some extent, the natural shields of monsters. The rifles are still rare, expensive, and very heavy. They're thin, but they're six feet long.

After about twenty minutes, we realized Irvine wasn't coming.

"I don't understand," Quistis said to no one "I definitely told him to meet in the guest dormitories at one o' clock. Our train to Deling leaves in three hours, we need to-"

"Quistis," Rinoa cut in "was Irvine wearing a cowboy hat?"

"Yes, you've met him?"

"No…but I think I see him."

Rinoa pointed out Squall's window to the small lawn in front of the outside entrance to the dormitory. I didn't like him, pretty much as soon as I saw him – first of all he was too tall. I'm sure his cowboy hat, which looked like it was made of fake leather, added several inches. He wore the stupidest purple vest – he should have gone the whole ten yards and bought a suede one – and a brown trench coat. It billowed out behind him when he walked; I'll bet he got the idea from his headmaster. His pants had decorative, diamond shaped patches on the knees, and worst of all his hair was longer than Quistis's, pulled into a long, brown ponytail.

He was lying in the grass when we went outside to meet him and, though he must have seen us coming, waited until we were about ten feet away to get up.

"So," he said. "I guess I'm with you rubes from Balamb." I didn't know what a rube was, but it sounded snotty. His voice was too low, also, lower than Squall's. I'd have bet he was talking in a low register on purpose.

"Marty explained the job. So you cool with me helping you?"

I was pleased when Squall told him "Depends on your attitude."

He gave a fake, short laugh. I'd have sworn he looked at me when he said "I say things to get a rise out of some people. Just don't let it bother you and we'll get along fine."

Squall introduced him around. He shook hands with Squall and me (he was wearing fingerless gloves, like some freaking biker) and then took off his hat and kissed each of the girls' hands. Quistis pursed her lips like she wanted to snatch hers away. I noticed he looked up at Selphie after kissing her hand and raised his eyebrows, still holding it. I wished she'd roll her eyes or even tell him off, but she just blushed and looked away. We all went inside.

He asked, "So what kept you?"

"I apologize" said Quistis "I meant for us to meet _inside_ the dormitory."

He waved a hand pretentiously "It's cool."

"So what are the orders?" I asked, through clenched teeth.

Squall sat at his desk, Selphie and Rinoa on the bed.

"Our next mission," he said quietly "is no ordinary assignment. It's a direct order from both Balamb and Galbaldia gardens. We're to…assassinate the sorceress."

I was pretty shocked, though I tried not to look it. I'd figured we would be bodyguards for some rival politician in the peace talks, or carrying out espionage to collect information on the sorceress, though I couldn't see why they'd want three rookie SeeDs and a sacked instructor. Quistis's elbow, which she was leaning on Squall's chest of drawers, slipped off and she caught fall quickly on the opposite wall and slowly collected herself, glancing around to see who had noticed. Selphie and Rinoa looked at each other, and then at Squall, eyes wide and lips parted. I don't know if Irvine was surprised. I was trying not to look at him.

Squall cleared his throat and continued, ""We're to shoot her from afar. Kinneas will be our sharpshooter. We're to support Kinneas to our fullest. Should the sniper fail, we are to attack head on."

"Thanks for the support, but I never miss my target."

Squall ignored him, "Eliminate the sorceress. That's our order. We're going to head to the capital of Galbaldia, Deling City. There, we'll meet up with General Caraway to go over the details for the plan."

Squall put Cid's orders back in the enveloped. "Our train to Deling leaves from East Academy Station at four. We'll meet in the garden parking lot in an hour and drive from there to the station. Quistis, you got a key from the headmaster?" Quistis nodded. "Alright. Dismissed."

We filed out of the room. Quistis looked a little disgruntled by the "dismissed". I think she'd assumed, like I had, that Cid would want her leading the mission. On the way out, Selphie said to Rinoa "You know that forest might not be so bad this time. We won't have to pee in the woods or run out of drinking water."

The rest went back to our rooms while Irvine headed back to the main hall of the garden. Selphie turned to watch him go, and Rinoa and I turned to watch her. Irvine spun a full 180 on his heel, tipped his hat to the girls, and continued down the hall. They didn't respond, but I did. With nausea.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"You've learned more in two days than I did in my first year of training. Drawing's to easy for you now. It only makes sense that you start casting." Selphie marvels.

"I had a good teacher. Besides, this stuff pretty amazing. Remind me to give this back to Squall okay?" Rinoa motions to Squall's electronic SeeD handbook. "I can't believe garden can afford to give all the SeeDs these…"

"They're cheap in big batches, and it's a well-funded program."

Everyone's first spell is float, Selphie had told Rinoa, because it's the easiest.

"You aren't trying to shape magical energy into physical form, like heat or lightening or something, you're just using it to work against gravity. Rinoa had done really well with small objects, floating pens and later stacks of books and glasses of water off the floor and holding them suspended, but she couldn't lift bigger things, like a mattress.

"This is so cool! It's just like television! But why is it so much harder on the mattress, it's about as heavy as the books…?"

"It's bigger; you have to spread your energy out more."

Rinoa had worked for an hour with no success. When she finally gave up, Selphie was flipping through an issue of Timber maniacs. Rinoa flopped down on the mattress, and stared out the window at the clouds parading lazily across the sky.

_Relax your perception._

Rinoa's eyes widened, she froze, worried that if she moved, Leviathan would go away.

"Selphie he's talking to me!" she hissed.

"Leviathan? Good, good! That's great, stand up." Rinoa sat up and gingerly stepped onto the floor. (Relax my what…?)

"Good, stand up straight. Breathe deeply." _Allow your conscious to expand. _

"Hang on, I can't hear you both at once…"

_Use only one hand. _(I've always done it with both)_ Use only one hand. Move with your breath, not against it. _

Rinoa raises her hand and closes her eyes, feeling heat build in her palm, and then waves the mattress upwards. It rises too fast at first and almost hits the ceiling. Rinoa exhales and it slows and hovers above the ground. Selphie applauds.

After that it seemed no spell was out of her reach. Since mastering float, Rinoa had learned to freeze the geezards in Galbaldia Garden's training center with "blizzard", inflict minor burns with "fire" create a bolt of electricity with "thunder", and temporarily deaden pain sensors and heal small burns and bruises with "cure".

Selphie was teaching her "protect", a much more complicated casting, when Zell came to tell them it was time to leave.

The car lent to the SeeDs, a blue van used for student field trips and outdoor training sessions, is much too big its seven passengers. The driver, Eddie, a teaching assistant with a bald head but a very full black mustache, is clearly unhappy to be there. He heaves a sigh periodically, and finally complains to Irvine, who's sitting shotgun,

"That guy has some nerve; I don't know who that guy thinks he is. Just because a' employee, not a twenty year old fresh outta college fuckin' office intern either, I've been at G-Garden for what? Two years now? And that guy has the nerve, just because I'm spending my day off on campus, to ask me would I mind driving down to fuckin' East Academy? I mean, yeah I fuckin' mind. You know what that guy thinks? That guy thinks because I ain't locked in my room grading fuckin' papers, I mean, just because I ain't got an instructors lisence, it doesn't mean…"

Rinoa tunes him out and goes back to reading Squall's SeeD handbook.

_The use of Para-magic (magic) or "casting" is an essential part of the garden student's curriculum. Every student, from weapon's specialists to tacticians in training must pass both a level one self-defense practicum, and at least a level one PECE (Para-magical Energy Casting Exam), which includes a written test and evaluated casting of basic spells. Magic specialists must additionally pass a level four PECE in basic para-magic, and a level 6 PECE in their area of specialization. For information on preparing for the PECE, see the SeeD tutorial, section 22D._

_SeeDs classifications of standard spells differ from their scientific organization in that spells are sorted by area of function and level of difficulty, rather than the nature of the manipulation of energies. The blank basic families of spells are healing, status related, elemental, enhancing or "support" and forbidden. Please note that use of any spell from the latter group during an official exam or evaluation without prior consent of the proctor or test administrator can result in serious consequence including loss of privileges, suspension, or expulsion. _

_The healing family includes both 'combat' spells, used to staunch bleeding, repair minor cuts and lacerations, numb pain, and restore energy, and 'non-combat' spells for more serious injuries and maladies. Though healing para-magic is not as effective as modern medicinal techniques, it requires no equipment, and is an invaluable supplement to basic first aid. Mastery of healing spells is essential for medics and field nurses. (For information on healing magic, see section 25D.)_

_Status magic covers four standard spells in the SeeD cache, and at least fifteen in total. Bio poisons humans and some monsters, causing a gradual breakdown of the nervous system resulting in muscle spasms, sensory malfunction, and eventually death. It is very effective, but relatively easy to counteract and difficult to cast. Blind attacks the retina of humans and most monsters, causing loss of sight. Sleep causes some humans and a few monsters to pass out, and meltdown weakens the pain tolerance of all humans and monsters. (For information on healing magic, see section 26D.)_

_Elemental casting is the transfer of elemental energy (see 'element chart' above) in the form of structured heat, electricity, cold etc to another body of matter. Elemental specialists focus on offensive, rather than defensive or enhancing magic. Elemental casting is particularly effective against monsters, which often have weaknesses to elements particular to the body structure of their species. (For information on healing magic, see section 27D.)_

_Support magic includes well-known spells like shell, protect, and haste, and more unusual ones, such as reflect and aura. Few SeeDs choose to specialize in enhancing magic, though many elemental casters have a strong background in…_

Rinoa snaps Squall's handbook shut as the van pulls over from highway next to East Academy Station. Irvine jumps out of the front seat, followed by Rinoa and the other SeeDs. Eddie wishes Irvine luck, gives the others an upward jerk of his chin, and makes a U-turn to head back to the Garden.

Rinoa follows the others onto train platform and sits on a bench while Squall buys tickets. They board the Deling-bound train and take a compartment near the front, and store their backpacks and Irvine's leather messenger bag above it. Unlike the SeeDs, Irvine leaves his weapon his black weapon case in the overhead bin. It's a little crowded, with Rinoa, Selphie and Irvine on one bench seat and Squall, Zell and Quistis on the other, until Selphie leaves to look out the window. Rinoa makes a mental note to ask her what's wrong with the cabin window. She looks out over the Galbaldian planes, yellow-green grasses broken by an occasional shrub of tree in the distance. The sky is vividly blue against the yellow land.

Next to her, Irvine stands up, tips his hat genially to the compartment, and steps out into the hall, closing the sliding door behind him.

"Man, when are we leaving?" says Zell. When Irvine doesn't return after a few minutes, he steps around the edge of the table to sit on Rinoa's side of the compartment. "So what do we do about _him_?" he asks testily, jabbing a thumb at the compartment door.

"Irvine did just kind of…leave…should someone check?"

"I'll go." Rinoa volunteers. (I think I have a good idea where he went anyway.)

Rinoa steps out into the train hallway. It's decorated simply, with gray carpeting and lined with off-white compartments with sliding, blurred glass doors.

"This train, bound for Deling city, will be departing shortly." announces the overhead speaker. Rinoa wanders between the rows of compartments towards the front of the train. A few of the compartments are empty, their doors wide open and keys hanging outside them. The others show their occupancy with closed doors and luggage in the locked bins above them. A few late passengers, a young couple, push past Rinoa and scurry to claim one of the empty compartments.

In the front of the train is a triangular shaped area with worn blue carpeting, and no walls. Rinoa suddenly understands why Selphie leaves the train cabin to look at the view. The two front facing sides are made of huge glass panes connected to the floor and the tin ceiling, affording a 180 degree view of the Galbaldian planes, the train track stretching into the distance like a grey fence cutting through the yellow grass. In front of the windows, leaning against the rail surrounding the windows, Rinoa recognizes the back of Selphie's yellow jumper. Next to her, Irvine's brown trench coat and cowboy hat.

"Maybe it's destiny…" says Irvine coolly, leaning on the window and into Selphie's view.

"Y-Yeah right." Selphie turns away from Irvine and the windows. Rinoa ducks around the corner and into the nearest empty compartment. She sits upright on the cabin's bench, trying not to listen to Selphie sigh and the sound of her boots crossing the floor.

"A sigh of love?" Rinoa can picture Irvine, standing in the light of the huge windows, watching Selphie leave. Rinoa holds her breath and wills herself to melt into the wall as Selphie passes. She slips out of the compartment and follows her at a distance, back down the hallway. (Poor Selphie…what an egotistical jerk-off…) The train creaks; the floor shifts under Rinoa's feet as it starts to move.

She hears Irvine before she sees him, following her down the hall. She quickens her pace, but he catches her hand and turns her towards him, locking his blue eyes on hers before she's even a compartment length away from the triangle room. Rinoa's hand squirms against his leather glove, but he holds it and slowly draws her back towards the windows. "Rinoa," he says breathily "I'd like very much to have the honor of your company for a moment." Rinoa turns her body around, her hand still clasped in his, twisting her shoulder, and comes face to face with Zell, Quistis, and Squall. "Selphie's in the restroom." Quistis says coldly, her cheeks reddening. Zell looks ready to punch through a wall. Irvine drops her hand.

"Mr. Kinneas," Quistis says, through a clenched jaw, "You are representing your garden in a vitally important mission. Your behavior, thus far, has not reflected as much." Rinoa could imagine Quistis as a strict teacher, despite her youth.

Irvine turns his back to the SeeDs and surveys the planes rushing under their feet. "It's the same everywhere…no one understands me..." he announces. Rinoa notices Squall raise his eyebrows, skeptically. "Sharpshooters are loners by nature..." he continues, walking towards the window. He leans into the railing, hunching his shoulders. "We hone our instincts, pour our whole being into a single bullet. The pressure of the moment...An instant of tension..." He stands straight and turns back to Rinoa, who averts her eyes and sees Selphie emerge from the hallway and stand behind a fuming Quistis. "That's what...I have to face alone..." He walks towards them. Rinoa steps back reflexively and he passes between her and Selphie, who watches him with wide, green eyes, transfixed. "...It's not easy." he says, and continues down the hall. He turns back to the group and gives Selphie a meaningful look. To the others, he adds, "So just...do me a favor, and let me be! You get my drift?" He turns away and retreats into the SeeDs' compartment.

Zell punches the doorframe between the triangle room and the hallway, and the train rumbles. Quistis glowers at him and then spins on her heel and walks back down the hall. Squall and Selphie follow, Squall shaking his head gloomily.

"Err, there was no damage to the train from that, uh, minor vibration..." announces the overhead system "I repeat... there was no damage to the train from that…minor vibration."

Rinoa returns to the compartment. Irvine is leaning back in his seat, his hat tipped forward to shadow his face. Next to him, Quistis flips through Cid's orders with crisp gestures and pursed lips. Squall sits by the door, his eyes fixed on the table in front of him.

Rinoa: Timber residents often say that trains remind them of home, because they're such a popular form of public transportation. Timber is, in fact, the hub of the International Railway Network, and manufactures train cars used all over the world. Trains and train stations always remind me of emotional vulnerability. Leaving Seifer, returning to Balamb, and traveling between Timber and Deling city are all connected to trains. This train ride back to my father's house was especially hard. To get away from the loaded silence in the compartment, I went to sleep with my head against a window.

I had a half-dream half-memory of being in my father's house. It must have been after my mom died, because the decorative coat that signified his being a general was in the front hall closet. I'd pulled it off of its hanger hid under it for a long time, crying and singing quietly to myself in the dark. All I could see was a stripe of light from the front call coming through a crack in the closet door. He and my nanny, Anya are looking for me, but I won't come out because I'm angry.

My father wanted to send me to school in another city; he'd already picked out the place. I'd be starting first grade alone in a strange place, and I was sure my best friend Kemy would find a new best friend when I was gone, and Anya would find another little girl to take care of.

My father's harsh voice and Anya's nasal one echoed all around our house calling "Rina! Rina!" "Rinoa Jacqueline Carraway!" I thought with bitter pleasure that with so many rooms in our three story house, they'd never find me. I was angry with Anya as well as my father. She was leaving tomorrow. She'd told me so.

She found me first and lifted me, red-eyed and sniveling out of the closet. She clucked and fussed as she led me upstairs by the hand.

"Mister Carraway! She's right here!" I felt utterly betrayed.

My father was livid. "Rinoa! Why didn't you answer when we called you!" I started to cry again and he threw up his hands in exasperation. "Stop that! Rinoa, you're too wild. That's why you need to go to Timber Elementary Boarding I can't even…" he kept gesturing at me as though it was obvious what he was trying to say. As though a six-year-old could understand, my seventeen-year-old self thought. I cried harder and wiped my nose on my sleeve. "Don't do that" he said impatiently and reached for me. I screamed and ran the other way into Anya's tall, protective legs. She reached down and stroked my hair.

"Mister Carraway, she's still only a child-"

"And that's all she's ever going to be if I keep letting her run wild!" I buried my head in Anya's skirts to drown out his shouting. "She's too headstrong. She doesn't have any sense of reasonable boundaries, she…"

My father sighed and dropped his hands. "Rinoa, go to your room." Disobeying my father had become reflexive by then, and I sank onto the floor. He picked me up, pried Anya's skirt out of my small hands and carried me, crying and struggling, to my room down the hall. He put me down on the edge of my bed.

"Rinoa, you will stay here until I tell you you can come out. I have work to do, but we will talk about this tonight." He left, and I fell back on my bed, exhausted from crying. I heard a key turn in an old-fashioned lock and lept up. I grabbed a hard-headed plastic doll off the floor and banged its head on the door rhythmically, like a small protestor. It was probably reasonable of my father to lock me in, I reflected. If he didn't, I would have hidden somewhere else, or run away to the park with some toys and crackers in a toy baby stroller, a regular occurrence at the Carraway house.

I might not have been so upset if I'd known how much good the little boarding school in Timber would do me. I was happier with the seven other children in the juniors program than I'd ever been at home, and I loved community living after growing up with only my father, his servants and Anya around. When I turned ten I joined the regular boarding school program, which lasted all the way through the eleventh grade, by which I'd gotten enough credits to graduate. I spent my summers in Deling City enjoying the night life, and as little time as possible at home.

For the rest of the train ride I watched Irvine out of the corner of my eye, and wondered why I felt so blank about Seifer's death. The cynical aggression was gone; so was the guilt. Now I just felt empty and drained. I would go back to my father's house, but I didn't plan to stay there, though he would probably try to make me. Still, I'd been sneaking out of that house for years. I'd pack a suitcase and go to a friend's house. I'd call Shiro. Shiro was my first love, at the age of eight, and a constant companion during my summers in Deling, from roller skating to the movie theater to visiting night clubs in later summers. He was the fourth of five sons, and his mother had always been glad to have another female presence in the house. She and her husband had emigrated from southern Esthar in the 20s. I would stay at their house and get back in touch with Watts and Zone…and when it was safe, I would go back to Timber.

I felt better having a plan in mind. Maybe when I got back to Timber I would study magic and casting. I'd have to get a license, which would take time and required the consent of a legal guardian. I wondered if it would be worth the risk to continue learning illegally. I'd have to use a different name; anything connected with the Forest Owls wouldn't be safe after our train kidnapping fiasco. I might have to change my hair too. I wondered how I would look as a brunette.

The overhead system announces the train's arrival in Deling City, and the group gets up, files out of the compartment and retrieves their backpacks. Their weapons draw a few stares from the crowd of men and women in business suits. They shuffle through the mob on the train platform and into a brightly lit, underground station. Officials in blue uniform direct swarms of people, most in business suits with ties and high-heels, but a groups of teenagers in jeans and jackets mill around talking and smoking under the wary eyes of the station officials, and two homeless men with scraggly hair and beards beg change from passers-by with empty paper coffee cups. Rinoa breathes in the familiar cigarette smoke and car exhaust. (Just like home.)

"Hey, this is where Sir Laguna is from!" Selphie realizes.

"Yeah, feels so weird to be here and be awake." says Zell.

Even with Rinoa guiding them through the city's system of cable-car shaped buses, it will be late in the evening before the party gets to Carraway's mansion. Yellow balls of light, the perpetually lit streetlamps lining the roads of downtown Deling City crawl past, broken only by a dark expanse in front of the city temple. The temple priestesses don't allow streetlamps, mailboxes, or parking in front of the temple. Rinoa wonders, what religion they cater to. She's never heard of anyone going to the temple to pray. The SeeDs sway, thrown by the movement of the bus, or hold onto the rails lining it. Zell complains that they should have benches. Rinoa stands at the back of the bus, shifting her weight to accommodate for turns and stops, as Main Street flies past.

"Wow, you look like you've been doing this all your life." Selphie says laughing.

"Most of it. Hey Selphie, thanks for teaching me about casting. It's been…really fun. It's been great meeting you."

Selphie gives her a puzzled look.

Inches from her ear, in what she thinks at first is Leviathan's voice, Rinoa hears, "We'll be staying at General Carraway's residence until the inauguration ceremony. The General will be briefing us on the mission." Rinoa feels shivers go up her spine realizing Squall has been standing immediately behind her for who knows how long.

"My _father_ is overseeing this? I didn't even know he had contacts in garden…he's the general of the Galbaldian army…"

"Not everyone in the Deling's government approves of his new emissary."

"But he would never assassinate his boss's ambassador, he's just not like that…if anyone found out he was involved it'd be the end of his career; the press would have a feeding frenzy…I don't get it…"

Squall shakes his head; his long hair falls away from his face. "Why else would Martine have allowed you, the general's daughter, access to the details of the mission?"

Rinoa pauses, and then nods her understanding. "If he weren't in on it…I could have warned him. I wouldn't have though; I guess I forget that not everyone understands the uh…nature of his relationship with me. He's always been loyal to Galbaldia; _I'm_ the rebel in the family."

"Maybe that's why he's doing it." Irvine emerges from a shadowed corner of the bus. Rinoa draws back suspiciously; Selphie watches him like a hen transfixed by a fox. By now Zell and Quistis have taken notice. Irvine glances over his shoulder as though the bus driver might hear them.

Rinoa laughs. "I promise, he isn't trying to win me over. He's about seventeen years to late."

"No, but you said he's loyal to Galbaldia. He's been in the picture longer than Deling has. Maybe he just wants what's best for his country. Besides, aren't Galbaldians usually suspicious of sorcery?"

"Isn't everybody?" says Zell.

"It doesn't matter." Squall says, in a tone that says the subject is closed. "It's not our job to figure out why; we just follow orders."

Irvine retreats back to his corner of the bus. To Rinoa's surprise, Quistis follows him to ask a question about Martine. Zell slips into Irvine's vacant place, next to Selphie.

"Aren't you even curious?" Rinoa asks Squall. "They're asking you to…kill someone."

Squall shrugs, doesn't meet her eyes. "Maybe this is a coup d'etat. I don't know. Your father must have had a good reason or garden wouldn't have trusted him."

The bus pulls up in front of the familiar house, built on the steep slope between main street, and a smaller back street so that the whole house seemed to be growing straight out of the hill. A dark, hedge-lined path behind an iron gate stretches in front of them, the large, Victorian house looming behind it like the scene of an ancient murder in a mystery movie.

"You folks getting off?" asks the bus driver.

Rinoa steps down off the bus. A puddle of water from a recent rain shower, common to the northern coast of Galbaldia in the winter, wets her boots. She can't remember the last time she was here in the winter.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

An ornate free standing clock strikes ten. The SeeDs have been sitting in Carraway's tastefully furnished drawing room for almost an hour. Selphie sits on the piano bench in one corner, talking Rinoa, who's sitting cross-legged on the carpet, through a visualization exercise. The others have long stopped talking. Quistis, Zell and Squall sit on the two rose-colored couches. Irvine lounges behind a decorative desk, resting his crossed ankles on its surface.

The striking clock interrupts Rinoa's concentration and she stands up and paces the room. Selphie leans back against the closed piano. "What's taking so long?"

Rinoa shakes her head. "He always does this! It's so discourteous…making people wait." She crosses to the door. I'll be back, everyone just…wait here." (Yeah, what else are they going to do?) Rinoa remembers her father occasionally keeping his visitors waiting for up to twenty minutes. She suspected as she got older that he did it to give himself a psychological advantage in negotiations with his colleagues. But why he would keep his subordinates shut up in his living room for an hour is beyond her. "Squall," she says turning to him. "Don't leave me in this house, okay? Do you need me to explain?" She half-hopes he'll say yes. Squall shakes his head, and looks up from his floor face.

"You should know by now, just tell us what to do and we do it." Rinoa sighs.

"Okay then. Thanks." She leaves the room.

Irvine: Three beautiful women and a chance to use my increasingly rare training. What more could a man ask for? Or so I thought when we left Galbaldia Garden. Neither Selphie, nor Rinoa took to me right away, and making a pass at Quistis would probably be akin to, say, picnicking on railroad tracks.

The truth is, the sharpshooting I base my reputation on is rarely called for. I'm a combat specialist, not a sniper. My weapon of choice in day-to-day training is called a "plasma pistol", though it's shaped more like a "plasma rifle". Rather than solid material, which an HS shield blocks, it uses a mix of hydrogen and nitrogen to fire ionized gas. The result is not as effective as a bullet against an unshielded body, but it lets the user stay outside the heat of the mêlée. I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't enjoy getting my hands dirty. I can do basic casting as well; I'm a versatile fighter.

Sharpshooting began as a hobby, and ended with me as the national distance shooting championships at age sixteen. After that, I became a top dog on campus, and my reputation as a ladies man spread on the shoulder of my new nickname, the "best shooter in the garden" (and, in fact, the country). Girls were all over me for about a year after that. They love the misunderstood loner persona. I never got serious with any of them, partially because monogamy is not in my DNA, and partially because none of them could really keep up with me.

I mean, I have big plans. I'm going to be an agent, specifically, an assassin for the Galbaldian government. Though I didn't expect my first break to be a mission with the objective of assassinating a high-ranking representative of the Galbaldian government, I was still delighted when Marty asked me to do it. Go to Deling City, rumored to be a wild party town, take out some creepy sorcery using chick, and come back to garden a hero, with the head of the Galbaldian military as a reference.

I didn't expect lots of things though: first off, avatars. Since I'd be working with the SeeD program, they "generously" offered to match me up with an avatar. I guess Marty wanted to keep on Cid's good side or something; he made me accept. So I go through a 30 minute interview, take some psyche tests involving ink blots and making up stories based on pictures, take a physical, and tell the interviewer all about my training and career plans. The a gang of freelance researchers asks me to take another series of tests, this time involving remembering words, pictures, tunes, and movements. "We need to test your kinesthetic memory as well as your visual and aural recall…" I remember them telling me, performed a series of upper body gestures standing from memory, standing on one leg.

Two weeks later, I was junctioned with Bahamut. It was creepy at first, having him give me ideas that I knew weren't coming from me, but after he gave me hints to a question on a physics test, I started to like him. According to the three-inch binder I got with him, Bahamut's independent form is a blue dragon. I named him after a blue dragon in a Centurian myth where Bahamut, the Blue dragon, and Azar, the ruby dragon are continuously fighting. As punishment, Hyne turns them into islands. Bahamut becomes the island closest to hell, Azar, the island closest to heaven. Today, the islands are a breeding ground for dragons.

I digress. My point is that the mission was not at all what I had expected. Sitting in a pompous, ultra-conservative war-mongrel general's living room for an hour was definitely not what I expected, and I was pretty pissed when Carraway finally came in. He was all gussied up in full uniform with pins and badges on his jacket. He took a page out of Marty's book with his shoes – dated combat books. His coloring was a lot like Rinoa's; his graying hair looks like it might have been jet-black like hers, about a century ago, and his eyes are brown, but he has a square jaw and strong build. Rinoa's face is heart-shaped, and she's skinny.

He came alone, with no apology for keeping us waiting. Squall asked where Rinoa was as soon as we'd all made introductions. He leaned on the back of a couch and told us,

"She has not had the type of training that you have and may become a burden. It's best that she stay out of this operation." Awkward silence.

"So…you're Rinoa's father?" Selphie asked conversationally.

"I can't remember the last time she called me that."

"So the father's a top military officer and the daughter's a member of an anti-government faction? That's pretty bad." said Zell, sounding impressed.

"Yes, indeed. It's a serious dilemma. But it doesn't concern you, it's our problem. Besides, we have more important things to worry about."

Squall looked like he was going to say something, but he just shook his head in silent disagreement. Apparently it was his problem. He said,

"Garden's directive and Rinoa's orders have the same value to us. Once our mission is accomplished here, we're working for Rinoa, as per our contract. I don't know what your situation is, but please don't interfere when the time comes."

"And if I do?" I was starting to understand Rinoa's instructions not to leave her in the house. Squall looked pissed (or as much so as Squall ever does, meaning he uncrosses his arms and speaks louder),

"We're all SeeDs here. We'll act accordingly." I decided to step in.

"Hey hey hey, fellas. We're here to knock off the sorceress, right? Let's get down to business."

Rinoa makes her way through the familiar house mechanically to keep memories of living there at bay: out of the drawing room, left, into the front foyer, left, up the stairs, right, down the hall to her room, second door on the left. The door is open; it always has been since she broke the outside lock with a screwdriver and a hair pin four summers ago.

Nothing had been changed; Rinoa doubted her father had even gone inside in the past two years. The overhead lamp flickers to life. The cloudy blue wallpaper is still up, and her cream colored carpet. The curtains are drawn over her two windows, and her futon still lay underneath with the sheets crumpled at the bottom, and the blue quilt thrown hastily over them. Her desk still has homework from sophomore year spread on its surface.

Rinoa reaches for the phone of her desk, realizes she's forgotten Shiro's number, which she used to be able to dial in her sleep, and has to rifle through her drawers until she finds her dusty address book with a glittery fairy on the cover.

Kenji, Shiro's 25-year-old brother answers the phone. Born in Esthar, he still has traces of an Estharian accent. Rinoa asks for Shiro.

"He will be home on Saturday, he is visiting friends in Dollet. Would you like his cell phone number?"

"That's fine, thanks Kenji. Tell your mom I said 'hi'."

Rinoa hangs up. She flips through her address book, the fairy shedding pieces of glitter in her lap, looking for somewhere to stay. She tries Laurel, Kendra. The phone rings five times before she picks up, sounding sleepy,

"'Lo?"

"Kemy, its Rinoa. I'm sorry to call so late, I just got into town."

"Rina! God it's been forever. You remember how Shiro and you and me used to spend the summers together? Oh hey, thanks for all those letters you sent me…"

"I'm sorry! I've been so busy. I have so much to tell you, I just need a place to stay for a few days."

"Hey, say no more. But aren't you going to stay with your dad?"

"I would, but it's been two years; I think I've forgotten how to survive his company."

Kemy laughs, "You sound just the same. I'm going back to bed, but there's a key in the plant. Wake me up when you get here, alright?"

"Sure, thanks Kemy."

(I'll say goodbye to everyone first, then I'll pack…). Rinoa closes the door behind her and crosses the hall to the top of the foyer stairs. The open door to her father's study, usually closed, catches her eye. Rinoa peers inside. The overhead light is off, but a reading lamp on the old oak desk illuminates a circle of papers and glints off of something shiny. Rinoa peers down the hall and then steals into the room.

Her first thought is that the bracelet on her father's desk must have belonged to her mother. Anya never wore jewelry, and it didn't look like anything Rinoa would wear. It was a gold bangle studded with colorful crystals. Surrounding it on the desk were what seemed to be the product of a brainstorming session. There are several crumpled sheets of notebook paper, printed sheets of statistics and lists of names, and phone numbers on yellow post-it notes. At the top of the pile is a crudely drawn sketch of the arc dividing downtown Deling city from the northern districts. Across from it in green pencil is a picture of the carousel – a platform on top of city hall that displays holographic light shows on Saturday nights and holidays.

A booklet is rolled up and stuffed through the center of the bracelet. Rinoa pulls it out and examines the cover, which shows a short, balding Estharian man with a huge, red and white collar. He's smiling aimiably, and holding up a closed fist in the foreground of the picture. On his wrist is the same, gold bangle. In block letters over his head,

Dr. Odine's _Direct Magic Repression Bangle._

Practical products for the modern day sorceress.

Rinoa's eyes widen and she quickly flips to the first page of the booklet.

_Modern day sorcery can be as much a curse as a blessing. Because of the social prejudice sometimes associated with the use of direct magic, it can be helpful for a direct magic user to temporarily repress their access to magical energy, especially while learning to control her powers._

_Now, your direct magic can be turned on and off like a light switch, without conspicuous equipment or inconvenient pills and shots…_

Rinoa quickly rolls the booklet back up and stuffs it into the bracelet, then tiptoes downstairs.

The drawing room is empty, as is the front foyer. Rinoa is about to check the living room when she hears the front door open and close, and muffled conversation from the entrance hall.

"And all this is going to happen tomorrow night?" Selphie's voice.

"Yes, you all arrived just in time. I was expecting a group of Galbaldian students; it's very odd that Martine would make such a significant change at the last minute." Her father sounds tired. "I suppose he thought professional mercenaries would be better suited than military students for such an operation."

"Irvine's a military student." Zell, or Squall? No, Zell. The general ignores him.

"The guestrooms are to your right. I've already had your luggage moved. I hope you'll find them comfortable. By the way, my daughter Rinoa came with you, did she say if she was going to bed?"

Rinoa emerges from the living room.

"I just came to say goodbye."

"You can say goodbye tomorrow morning, right now we should all get some sleep."

"I'll be across town tomorrow morning. I'm staying with Kemy."

"We'll discuss this later." The general dismisses the SeeDs with a wave.

Rinoa turns towards the stairs. "I'm going to pack, general, and then I'm staying with Kemy. Not here." She starts up the stairs. She could call in the morning and tell the SeeDs goodbye over the phone, though it wouldn't be the same. A hand catches her shoulder.

"It's almost midnight. You'll sleep here." She shrugs her shoulder away angrily.

"I don't need you telling me what to do! I've been taking care of myself for years!"

"I'm tired, and I am not in the mood for this discussion right now! As long as you're underage, I am responsible for your safety. I don't want you crossing town alone this late at night."

Rinoa shakes her head and lets out an exasperated breath. This argument is going nowhere. She turns and climbs the stairs back to her room. (How dare he! Send me off to a strange city for twelve years and then have the nerve to try to act like my father? Yeah, right. I'll sneak out the backdoor.)

Rinoa kicks her baseboard in frustration. (_This_ is why I stayed in Timber!) She falls onto her futon, still fuming, but exhausted, and screams into the pillow. (Go to hell, you fucking right-wing war hawk. Goddammit…) Rinoa notices remotely that she's crying again, the pillowcase is wet. (Seifer's dead…)

A/N: moster shields – kudos to dune


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Selphie: It rained the day of the parade. General Carraway was on the phone for most of the morning, trying to find out if it would be cancelled or not, but the weather cleared up by noon. Squall went out with a sketchpad and an umbrella to get an idea of the layout of the downtown area. Everyone else pretty much stayed inside all day.

Irvine still made me nervous; after what happened on the train I wasn't really inclined to trust him right away, but we were stuck in the house all day, so we sort of had to talk to each other, and he turned out to be…well…less of a jerk than he seemed at first. He's also the national sharpshooting champion, which was pretty cool.

Rinoa gave me a tour of the house, which was really huge, and then we spent the morning working on her casting. I was really excited about her progress; she'd been practicing a ridiculously short time, and already she was racking up new spells that should take at least a week each to perfect. The thing is, she usually did them almost perfectly on the first try, and when she had trouble with something, Leviathan would talk to her and then she'd have it mastered and be on to the next spell.

Leviathan's direct, verbal communication with Rinoa was pretty unusual for a new GF-host pair, though not unheard of. Zell and Squall's GF both talked to them in words, but not all the time.

When Squall got back from scoping out downtown, we were both so intoxicated with Rinoa's success that we had to tell him about it. I dragged him, still wet and tracking mud on the foyer tiles, up to Rinoa's room. She cast shell and protect on him with no problem, and then demonstrated how she could cast blind on herself.

Squall raised his eyebrows and looked a little intimidated when she cast blind, though obviously she couldn't see it.

"You shouldn't do that too often. It can damage your eyes." he said, as she tipped her head back and dropped eye drops from my item pouch into her eyes. "Selphie, she learned this in a week?" I told him it had been less than a week. "This is really…unusual. Unheard of, as far as I know."

"I think it's Leviathan that's doing it." she said. "The meditations and stuff came pretty naturally, but he helps me when I'm casting; I can tell. Not just by telling me what to do, but actually doing something." She held up her hands "I know it sounds crazy, but it's like he's the one casting, but through me."

"No, GF don't cast para-magic. They manipulate magical energy directly. It's you who's doing it." He opened the door and checked the clock in the hall. "We have to be here for a final briefing at eight o' clock; it's almost one now. Rinoa, about how long would it take to get out of Deling and into the planes?"

"About half an hour. Why, what are you going to do?"

"With your permission, take you to practice on some live targets."

"She got some practice on the geezards at G-Garden. By the time we had to leave she was taking them out with one spell."

"Yes, she's definitely ready for something more challenging. You're licensed to cast magic of course?"

"Of course!" I cut in before she could blow it. Squall would never let her cast illegally, he was much too by-the-book then.

"Alright, Rinoa, do you want to go?"

"Yeah, you guys have a good time." I said.

"I assumed you'd be coming too."

"No way, much too tired." Squall may not have noticed how Rinoa looked at him when she thought he wasn't paying attention, but I certainly had.

Rinoa is torn between feeling guilty for lying about being licensed, and pleasure that Squall's finally shown some enthusiasm for something besides his job. She gives Selphie a pleading look. Selphie makes a shooing motion.

"I'd really like to, but not without Selphie." Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Selphie clap a hand over her eyes. Squall turns to her expectantly.

"Sure, fine. Rinoa, you have a poncho or something I can borrow?"

"No need, it's already clearing up." Rinoa points out the window, where a fine layer of mist is falling on the street outside.

Selphie, Squall and Rinoa leave a note in Quistis's room and then step out into the chilly, damp afternoon. Rinoa's spirits lift, walking through her old city, not so much from any memory associated with it, but with happiness to be out with Selphie and Squall, and excitement to test her new skills. They buy dinner, sandwiches and bottled water, at a local deli and catch a bus going to a car dealership near the edge of the city.

"It is pretty weird how they don't put seats on these busses." Selphie comments. The bus is a moving platform, with open sides and poles to hold onto. "It seems like an accident waiting to happen."

"There haven't been any accidents as far as I know, unless you count kids scraping their knees because they jump off before it's stopped completely." The movie theater she, Kemy and Shiro used to visit, and the park she ran away to as a child pass. The park looks forlorn now, the swing-set and slides beaded with rainwater.

"So what are you guys doing tonight, exactly?"

"That's confidential."

"Oh Squall, even Martine talked about it in front of her. Her father's overseeing the operation, its fine." Selphie turns to Rinoa "Basically we're going to split into two groups. The gateway group, that's me, Quistis and Zell, will trap the sorceress's float under that big arch during the parade tonight. The other one will go up on the carousel across from it, on top of city hall, and shoot her." Selphie pantomimes a gunshot. Rinoa remembers the sketch of central arc and city hall on her father's desk.

"You need to stop her entire float to get one open shot?"

"Well, if we miss then we have to carry out a direct assault, which could be pretty ugly. We want to keep most of the guards away from her float. The only security allowed to ride the float with her is the sorceress's knight." A stab of guilt runs through Rinoa's chest. Being a sorceress's knight had been Seifer's dream, albeit a twisted one. What a painful irony that for the first time in years there's a use for a sorceress's knight and Seifer is dead.

It's about a ten minute walk from the car dealership to the city limits, after which the trio follows the highway down to the top of an underground train tunnel. Rinoa gazes over the guard rail at the train tracks, about 30 feet below.

"Wouldn't want to fall down there."

"Come on. Monsters won't hang around roads or highways." They set off across the planes, towards a forest. "Forested areas are usually pretty active." Squall says nodding, and looking off into the distance.

"He's really excited about this." Selphie whispers to Rinoa.

"At least he's excited about something."

As they walk, Squall lectures Rinoa on avatar and magic use. Privately, she thinks that he's changed his tune since he told Selphie that SeeDs weren't paid to teach magic.

"You seem to have a really strong connection with, what did you call it? Leviathan. Most hosts can't communicate verbally with their avatars until they've been junctioned for several years, but a lot of things about this pairing have been unusual. Blind, for example, is a level three spell on the PECE."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I can't do it, and you shouldn't be able to either. None of this makes sense."

"She can do the core spells in levels one and two." Selphie cuts in. "She could pass level one field test, easily."

"We'll see; she isn't even part of the program. Have you thought about what you want to specialize in?"

"Specialize?"

"Yes, didn't they give you a lecture on the branches of magic and specialization when you got your license, or did you just take a crash course?"

"Uhhh, she took a crash course." Selphie answers quickly. Squall's pace is quickening as they get near the forest, and Rinoa has to jog a few steps to keep up.

"Well, with your talent you could probably specialize in any area you want to. Healing magic might suit you."

"I think I want to try "forbidden magic"." Says Rinoa, remembering the passage from Squall's SeeD handbook.

Selphie and Squall exchange glances.

"That's out of my area of expertise. Selphie, were there any Melchizideks at Trabia Garden?"

"Mel-whats?" Rinoa is feeling more ignorant by the minute.

"Forbidden magic specialists. No, there isn't really much call for them in the SeeD program. Forbidden spells - they just take too long to cast through para-magic."

"Comparatively easy acess to forbidden magic is part of what makes sorceresses so powerful."

"But…what is it?"

Squall stops walking and gives Rinoa a strange look. "Didn't you just say you wanted to specialize in it?"

"Well…yeah but I mean…in your opinion?" Rinoa kicks herself mentally.

"I don't really have an opinion on forbidden magic per say…SeeD magic specialists use some spells that are technically "forbidden" – Break, Stop, Double, Triple, Aura…" he ticks them off on his fingers. "Direct magic users can use much more powerful ones like Meteor. We probably don't even know half the forbidden magic out there." Rinoa's head is spinning. She's relieved when they reach the forest.

Squall peers eagerly into the dark trees.

"Okay, I want to do the actually fighting out here in the open. I'll go bring something out."

"But-"

But Squall is already crashing through the forest's undergrowth, swinging his gunblade like a machete. Rinoa sits in the grass, trying to replay the last few minutes of conversation mentally.

"Selphie, what was all that about forbidden magic? Double? Aura?"

"It's just a name for a type of spell that's…really difficult. It's not really forbidden, people just started it calling it that after all those T.V. programs came out during the sorceress war. It's really called Melchizidek casting because in ancient sorcery orders, you had to be initiated into the Melchizidek cult to learn it."

"I don't think I can do this…"

"You'll be fine! I promise. I don't know what it is, but you've obviously got something working for you. Rinoa," Selphie crouches next to her "I've never seen casting like that so fast. It's like you're some kind of sorceress or something. You'll get the hang of this."

The trees rustle and Rinoa jumps to her feet. Selphie stands up and nonchalantly pulls her nunchaku out of her half-zipped backpack. Squall walks out of the forest, carrying a plant at arm's length.

"Gross! Squaaaaall!" Selphie whines. Rinoa steps back. Even at a distance, the plant smells like a tupperware box of tofu swimming in green water she'd found in the back of Zone's refrigerator a few years ago. Squall sets the plant, a red blob with a mushroom-like, colorful top down on the ground. It wiggles. (Wiggles?) Two bulging, glassy eyes open on its surface.

"Careful," he says, pulling his collar off his mouth and nose. "It'll put you to sleep if you scare it." Rinoa wrinkles her nose in distaste, but says nothing. "It's called a Funguar. Good practice for a magic caster, it won't move." The funguar shuts its eyes and shades them with its mushroom-like head. "It's sensitive to the sun; it likes shade. Okay, now, I want you to concentrate on drawing energy from it."

Rinoa takes a deep breath through her mouth and exhales. She approaches the wriggling monster, reaches a hand towards it, pantomimes scooping water in towards her chest. Just as in practice sessions with Selphie, Rinoa feels the heat of energy in her fingers.

_Inhale_. says Leviathan.

Though it's the last thing she wants to do, Rinoa breathes deeply the scent of moldy tofu, and heat rushes into her hands, travels through her arms and into her body. She draws from the Funguar three more times before it's empty. Selphie claps.

"I told you she has a great draw!"

"Good." says Squall "Now use the energy you've drawn to cast a spell." Rinoa flips her hair over her shoulder. "Nothing fancy," he adds, as an afterthought, "just a basic one."

Rinoa raises one hand to cast, and the Funguar droops over resignedly, as though in hopeless expectation. The weight of its oversized head drags its body over, until the red plant is bent double. (It doesn't even try to fight back.)

Dropping her hand, she turns back to Squall. "I can't. Look at it, it doesn't even…"

"Rinoa, it's just like the geezards. At G-Garden, remember?"

"Sure, but at least they had some…spunk. They jumped on us as soon as we got in the door; one of them almost bit my hand off. This one is just sitting there."

Squall sighs. "Rinoa, monsters are…they're all aggressive. They're the natural enemies of humans. None of them are essential to our ecosystems; they attack humans, cats and dogs, and each other. They're…"

"But look at it! It didn't even try to fight back!"

"Because it knows it's outnumbered."

"It's…skinny."

"It's starving. Funguar are endangered in most forests; they haven't found a solid ecological niche. This one survived by eating its mate and its eggs."

Rinoa feels a little sick.

She raises a hand reluctantly, casts fire, and the funguar combusts in a burst of blue and orange flame. It crumples to the ground, smoke and the scent of scorched mildew rising from its charred remains. "I think I'm going to be sick." Selphie anxiously takes Rinoa's hand and presses rhythmically on the underside of her wrist.

"Nausea pressure point" she explains.

After that, Squall refrains from bringing more funguar. Instead, he chases out a Glacial eye and another Wendigo, and then is chased out by a T-Rexaur.

Selphie and Rinoa develop a rhythm in their casting, alternating types of spells. Squall keeps the monsters occupied, but doesn't attack them. Rinoa casts cure on Squall when the T-Rexaur's claw grazes his shoulder, and is so thrilled with her resourcefulness that she narrowly misses a swipe of its tail. The fights remind her of a movie called _The Sorceress Stands_ or _The Standing Sorceress_; something like that. Though the premise is hazy in her mind, she remembers a scene where a sorceress is casting magic on an assassin who's fighting her knight hand-to-hand. Then another assassin, someone's long lost brother, runs into the scene holding a gun like Irvine's and shoots at the sorceress. She doesn't duck, but her raises a hand over her head and a blue shield blocks the bullet. Then there's a close up of the shell rolling on the ground in slow motion.

By the time the training session is over, Selphie's had Rinoa practice all her old spells and taught her three new ones, useful but uncommon in on-the-job SeeD casting. "Poison" is a very effective spell, though it doesn't work on the anything but the Wendigo ("because it's closer to us in genetic make-up"). Rinoa has some trouble mastering "meltdown" until Leviathan relaxes her shoulders with invisible hands, and she casts it with wonderful effect on the T-Rexaur. "Silence" is more of an espionage caster's spell, Selphie explains. SeeDs learn to do learn it - some of their jobs involve subterfuge - but "we're only mercenaries, not spies." Silence contains sound waves within a certain range of frequency in the area its cast in. "We did this awesome experiment at Trabia Garden where we cast silence on our partners, and then took turns blowing a dog whistle and our math teacher's dog, Angelo, came to whoever was whistling even though we couldn't hear them…"

The walk back to Deling City feels much longer than the walk out, but Rinoa is in high spirits. She eats her sandwich out of its waxed paper as she walks, and tries to get Squall to talk more by asking questions.

"How old were you when you got your first GF?"

"Thirteen."

"What's he like?"

"He's a thunder elemental named Quezacotl. His independent form is a bird."

"And you've summoned him before."

"Yes."

"How about Zell's?"

"Zell's GF? It's a fire demon, Ifirt."

"What's his independent form?"

"I don't know."

It's almost seven when they reach edge of the city. Rinoa finds a bus headed downtown. As they pass under the central arc, the crowd on the sidewalks becomes steadily thicker. The decorative iguana statues clinging to the sides of the arc (the scene that's come to represent Deling City in tour guides and history books) glare at the bus.

"Lots of people out tonight." she says.

"For the parade, I guess." says Selphie.

"This early?"

"Sure, it's a big deal. Everyone wants a good spot."

"I just didn't know it was so publicized. Selphie, I thought of something. Can't a sorceress block bullets?"

"Sure. An HS shield can do that too."

"I mean even the ones that can get through those, with her hand. Like a shield – I remember a movie, I think it was based on something from the sorceress wars, I'm not sure of the title…"

She's relieved when Squall interrupts, "Sorceress's often practice blue magic, and imitate monster's shields manually. During the sorceress war, Adel was able to do it with such efficiency that she stopped a sniper shot. It was in the news for weeks, that must be what the movie was based on."

"So what's to stop this sorceress from doing the same thing?"

The arrival of the bus at Carraway's house puts off his answer, but Rinoa pushes the subject.

"Couldn't she block your shot? Like Adel?"

Squall shrugs, eyes forward. "Adel was one-of-a-kind. She took defensive blue magic to a level no one had seen before. Besides, the chances of her having time to react with no idea that the shot is coming are almost nothing. No one has the reflexes for that."

"Yes, but even so, wouldn't it be better…safer if she couldn't cast, especially if you have to fight her hand-to-hand?"

Squall gives Rinoa a skeptical glance; Selphie's turning from one to the other as if following a ping pong ball, as she opens the Carraways' front door.

"It would be better. But that's not possible." That's the tone of voice that implies the end of a subject. But…

"Look, wait here. I'll be right back I just have something to show you." Rinoa heads up the stairs.

"Rinoa, hurry. We're meeting the general in like, 10 minutes." Selphie calls after her. Actually, it's more like five minutes, but this won't take long. Rinoa runs upstairs, checks up and down the hall, and then gently nudges the cracked door to her father's office open.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

The overhead light is on now, and her father is just standing up behind his desk. Rinoa feels a surge of residual frustration and anger. (Still angry about last night…) He clears his throat.

"Rinoa."

Rinoa's shoulders are tight. She nods tersely.

"Hello Sylaas."

Carraway: When my wife died, what structure there was in my daughter's life was destroyed. I met Julia during the Sorceress War, at which time the pursuit of a career in the military entailed extensive traveling. After the War, when "Eyes on Me" – the CD not the song - became popular, she was the one often abroad. Rinoa traveled with her mother until…well, until she was five years old. The next three years were enough to convince me that I was completely unsuited for fatherhood. Rinoa had the audacious independence of a girl twice her age, and refused to be chained down. I blame the instability of her early childhood, the loss of her mother, and my own ineptitude. I was busy and a poor disciplinarian, and in retrospect Anya was more of a parent to her than I. When she resigned to return to school in Centra, I threw in the towel too.

Her summers at home convinced me that I had made the right choice. She was willful, and by her early teens she'd become willful, enraged with my politics and a passionate liberal, though what she knew of politics at the time could not have been more than the popular opinion of her young peers at Timber Academy. The summer after her last year of school, she didn't come back.

In the back of my mind, I knew I was hoping for the kind of reunion other fathers had with their daughters after long absences, but in Rinoa's mind I had failed her as a parent, and she refused to let me enjoy her time in my house. I was already tense about Martine's sudden switch of SeeD members, with no more explanation than that his Galbaldian team leader had been injured. Why the injury of one student should incapacitate a team of eight, he did not explain. The replacement team consisted of only six SeeDs from Balamb garden.

I should have known when I left her alone in my study. I went downstairs to meet with the SeeDs, but there was little to discuss. I didn't have the heart to give them a pep-talk. We reviewed the mission, and how their escape route to the back entrance of my residence they were to take when they'd finished. Four separate routes for each member of the gateway team from their posts on either side of central arch and at the switchboard in city hall, and one for the sniper team from the carousel, though they wouldn't be needing them.

Rinoa was in the living room when I came home, looking for her coat. I asked where she was going and she snapped,

"Kemy's."

She didn't have a suitcase or backpack with her.

"Where are you going?" I asked her again, and she turned on me, flushed and said,

"I'm getting out of this house! I hate this place, and I'm….leaving."

She didn't seem to be leaving though. She sat on the couch facing away from the door and rested her head in her hands, elbows on her knees. I left her alone, but locked the front gate from a control panel in the front hall. Not that it would stop her, but I could never give up the pretense of controlling her. If she wanted to watch the assassination of the sorceress, she'd find a way, and with her political convictions and flair for the dramatic she'd probably want to help as well. I returned to my study to find the door closed (I'd left it ajar) and the Odine Bangle from early stages of planning the assassination missing. I half-jogged back to the living room.

I told Rinoa she was foolish and selfish to endanger the mission with her childish games, that I forbid her to leave the house, that she was not to contact the SeeDs assigned to the assassination mission again. She got up off the couch, turned and regarded me coldly, her wrist extended.

"I assumed it had belonged to Anya."

She did not apologize for having taken it out of my study, and I was still angry with her, and unwilling to give up my passionately defended conviction that she was trying to sneak out.

"You will not leave this house until the parade is over."

Upon second thought, she was, after all, innocent until proven guilty, I added. "It'll be chaos out there soon. You'll be safe here." She waved me off with a limp wrist, the Odine bangle glinting in the sun. I left her, and returned again to the control panel in the front hall, this time to lock the living room doors, and went back to my rooms to watch a local news channel and wait.

Rinoa collapses on the couch, and screams into a pillow for the second time in two days. Quistis's flushed face and angry voice echo, unbidden in her mind:

"So what are you planning to do with it…we don't have time for this; this isn't a father-daughter quarrel. This isn't a game."

Her father had said the same thing, as had Squall at the T.V. station. This isn't a game. (…Of course this isn't a game. I don't want to make it one, I want to help. I wanna be part of this. I can do this…) she runs her fingers over the colorful crystals in the bangle. (7:30…not enough time to find my coat…) She stands and crosses resolutely to the door; locked. Her eyes widen in realization, and then narrow in anger. Of course. She runs to another door, but is not surprised to find it locked. Next door; locked. Locked! She fights an impulse to kick the baseboard.

(If I want to prove that Galbaldian resistance isn't a game to me, I can't act like a little kid).

She tries the doors again, then stops in front of the windows overlooking Main Street. On the side of the house opposite the front door, the downslope of the hill puts the first floor living room about two stories above the street. One hand resting on the maroon curtains, the other on her mother's necklace, she peers down to the street below. People mill around like small insects, waiting for the parade to start. Half an hour.

(I can do this.) She reminds herself.

A young woman in a black suit notices her first, and soon most of the block is staring and pointing. One man is yelling, trying to talk her down.

"I took a counselling course in high school! Now just stop moving and we're going to talk through this together!" He cries.

Rinoa can barely hear him over the ringing in her ears. She clutches miserably to knotted maroon curtain hanging out of the window, inching her way towards the drainpipe like a rock climber. The air is stinging and chilly on her bare legs and shoulders.

When the spectators below realize what she's doing, a few start to cheer and shout questions. "What are you doing? Did you get locked it?" (In a manner of speaking…) Rinoa reaches the drainpipe with one foot, wraps her ankle, then her leg around it. The curtain is stretched to its full limit now. She holds her breath and lets go, feeling for a moment that she's suspended in midair, connected to the wall only by one leg. The curtain falls limply away, and Rinoa's hands touch cold metal. Then she's sliding quickly down the rusty pipe, her hair flying all around her face. She holds tighter to the pipe to slow down, and feels her knees scraping, not painfully, against the wall of the house. A few people below are whooping and clapping. A young crowd has gathered at the base of the drain pipe, and teenagers in overcoats help her down, laughing and talking among themselves and to Rinoa, "Wow, what a jump." "Your mom wouldn't let you out of the house, huh?" "Oh! Are your legs alright?" Rinoa glances at the speaker, a dark haired girl in a pink overcoat (when did those coats come back in style?) wearing a skirt over her pants, and then down at her legs. Her inner thighs are striped with rust from the pipe, and two trickles of blood run down her shins from scrapes from the outside wall left on her knees.

"I'm fine," she assures them "thank you, thanks guys." She pushes her way through the cluster, which watches in bewilderment as she takes off at a sprint.

It's already eight o' clock when Rinoa reaches City Hall; the parade should already have started. (What public function concerning Vinzer Deling ever starts on time?) The building is lit like an enormous version of the lanterns she made as a child by putting candles in punctured tin cans. Light spills out of every window and skylight, and grows out of the roof in the form of holographic juggling clowns, the herald of a celebration. A speaking platform had been built over the outside of the second floors where wedding ceremonies and meetings of the city council take place. It stretches like a wide diving board out of the base of the holographic carousel, supported by clearly temporary wooden beams. A tiny bump of a podium is silhouetted against the lights.

Rinoa crosses the expanse of cement, wooden supports rising around her in a grotesque forest. The front door is chained shut. A single, uniformed Galbaldian soldier eyes her as she reads the "off-limits" sign. Of course, the sniper team is going to come in through the back door. Rinoa hadn't even known there was a backdoor previously. As she circles the building, she wonders if she's ever even been inside before. (What if I meet Squall and Irvine trying to get in? They're supposed to enter the building when the parade starts. But Deling hasn't even made a speech yet. If they try to break in too early they might get caught…they'll go when most of security is following the parade…but what can I do about security? I'm no SeeD; I can't take deal with an armed guard…)

No one is standing guard at the backdoor, because it doesn't have a handle. (It opens from the inside?) Rinoa climbs the fire escape, only to find a chain across the (probably locked) emergency exit. (What if there's a fire?) She sits and leans on the door, fuming, and strongly reminded of sitting on Ari's back porch the previous summer. The blood on her legs has smeared and dried, the stripes of rust mostly brushed off. She combs her fingers through her tangle of hair. (Even if I get to the sorceress before the parade starts, how could I see her like _this_? I didn't even put the stupid bracelet in a gift bag…I'm never going to get away with this.) She drops her head onto her drawn up knees.

_Look up._

(…Leviathan!)

_Use the resources you bring with you. _

Rinoa does look up, and then around her. (What resources? What do I have? I didn't bring anything, just my clothes, my wallet, this stupid bracelet, blaster edge, item pouch. She takes out her folded weapon and examines it, unfolds it. (Am I supposed to take it apart and pick the lock with the pieces?) There's nothing of use in her items pouch – pills, tiny bottles. (Who are you to talk to me like some freaking Zen master anyway?)

"I don't have anything!" She says aloud. (Hyne…look up…look up?)

She looks up. Above her is a dark window, not leaking bright light like the ones in front, but open. It's dirty, long out of use, but there's a yellow post-it note still sticking to the inside. How to get up? Rinoa jumps and her fingertips fall a few inches short. (Resources…resources….I can do magic? Melt the chain with fire?) She doubts that her spells have that kind of power, or can open locks. Blind? Cure? Protect? …Float?).

Rinoa breaths deeply, sweeps a hand towards her chest, feels the weight of her body lift from her feet. She stretches a hand up, still a long way from the window. Another breath, and another. With each exhale, she lifts a little higher until she can grab onto the windowsill. With the spell still helping hold her weight, she pulls herself up and nudges the window open with an elbow. It opens easily for something so old and dirty. She pushes her torso into the dark room on the other side and bends double at the waist feeling the spell dissipate and supporting all her weight on the sharp-cornered sill. With some more struggling and wriggling, she falls the rest of the way into the room, a walk-in storage closet she realizes, as her eyes adjust to the dark.

The post-it on the window says "God's Speed", not her father's handwriting, but definitely his phrase. Rinoa feels some smug pride that her entrance of choice was the one chosen by a military organization like Garden. (Not that I had much choice…) Rinoa leaves the closet, finally feeling the bruises on her hips from the windowsill, the sting in her knees from her descent from the living room window and tiredness in her legs from the run to City Hall.

Rinoa opens the closet door to find herself in a long carpeted passage, and, glory of Hyne, down the hall from a plastic map to the fire exits. She finds an X labeled "you are here" on the bottom of a large circle, representing the hall on the second floor. A wide set of stairs descends to the floor below. Rinoa imagines a wedding; bride and groom prepare for the ceremony in the rooms on the second floor while guests congregate on the first. The bride descends the stairs, her white train trailing behind her…

Footsteps pad down the hall to her left and she runs to the right, passing closed doors and another plastic map. Most of the overhead lights are off on the back side of the building, but the hall grows brighter as she comes to the front. Some of the doors are open now, and occasionally she passes a group of soldiers, but no one stops her. Still, she'll have to talk to one of them.

"Excuse me, is the sorceress in her room?" she asks the first guard she sees standing alone.

"Should be." He eyes her scraped knees.

"Could you remind me where that is?" She hopes she sounds like she belongs. He raises the visor on his helmet, looks into her face suspiciously.

"Who are you?"

(Relax, lie.)

"It's me….Rinoa. Oh, sorry," she gives him a condescending look "Rinoa _Carraway_."

"You're related to the general?"

"His daughter." Says Rinoa, as though it should be self-evident. She waits a minute, then pulls out her wallet, feigning exasperation and shows him her school ID. A year old, but he apologizes politely and points her to the right.

"From here, about a quarter turn around the hall. It's behind the speaking floor; you'll know it by the guards."

Rinoa keeps an eye out for a guarded room, and spots it before the soldiers (one tall, one short and pudgy, standing on either side of the door) see her. She backs up cautiously until the guards disappear behind the curve of the wall. She smoothes her hair and rubs at the blood stains on her knees with the tail of her duster. She strolls confidently up to the guards, nods her head politely, and extends her ID card.

"I need to see the sorceress please."

The soldiers look unenthusiastic. The short one steps forward and raises his visor out of respect, but folds his arms, causing the blue fabric of the uniform to strain across his shoulders.

"The parade is about to begin; Edea isn't seeing anyone."

"I have an appointment. I…may be a little late." The soldiers aren't impressed. "Doesn't she have a secretary?" she continues nervously, "She can tell you that I'm expected." The guards exchange looks, but the short one walks off briskly, presumably to find the secretary. Rinoa and the tall guard wait in tense silence. When the short guard is out of sight, Rinoa breaths deeply, raises a hand and casts silence on the soldier. He gives her a confused stare. She smiles politely in answer, and he says something, scratching his temple, and not realizing that Rinoa can't hear him. She raises her hand again and he looks angry, moves his lips noiselessly, and then jumps backwards in surprise. He draws a short, Galbaldian blade and swings it blindly, but Rinoa is already through the sorceress's door.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

The sorceress's chamber is dim after the bright hallway. Instead of a room, she finds herself in a large, windowless rectangle. Across from her, sheer curtains hang in front of a throne-like chair. The black top of the sorceresses head is just visible over the top. Rinoa clears her throat, holding the bangle and her wrist behind her back. (Hyne, please let this work).

"Excuse me...I…I'm...thedaughterofGalbadiaArmy'sGeneralCaraway." (What happened to my competence at lying to the guards?) the sorceress doesn't move. (Is she…sleeping?) I...thought I'd...come pay my respects…I've brought a small gift…please…"

The sorceress sighs audibly. She rises from the chair and raises an arm over her head. Her fingers are long, black, skinless claws connected to her sleeves. She flicks a wrist, and Rinoa freezes with one hand on her blaster edge, the other holding the bangle defensively in front of her. The sorceress stretches gently, crossing her arms over her body, and then turns and glides over to Rinoa. The strings of beads and jewels on her head dress swing gently. She is as Rinoa remembers her from the T.V. station, wearing the same black dress and headdress. It occurs to Rinoa that she's been wearing the same clothes for…how long now? Weeks?

The sorceress plucks the bangle from Rinoa's frozen fingers. She gives it a cursory look, tosses it to one side. Rinoa turns her eyes to watch it skitter across the floor. It taps the wall, echoes around the room. Edea leans in towards Rinoa; who looks up slowly to meet her gaze. Her eyes are light, light brown. (Golden…) Her skin is white, tinged with green, her make-up cracking. Rinoa stares with growing dread at the tiny raised veins on skin creeping from her temples.

"Sylaas's daughter. Come with me." (A Centurian accent…)

She turns abruptly and walks away, the fringe of her black dress swishing, dusting the floor. To Rinoa's amazement, her inert muscles warm with movement and she walks, floats across the floor like a bizarre puppet, suspended from her elbows, and the top of her head. The sorceress crosses to the end of the room and presses her palms on an elaborately carved wooden relief in the wall. It turns to silver liquid and she passes through it. Rinoa's invisible puppeteer guides her in pursuit. The silver liquid is warm and rubbery, the cold night air on the speaking platform shocking.

The crowd below roars. The platform is at least 30 feet wide, surrounded by a tall rail, and empty except for president Deling, retreating from a wooden podium with a single microphone. Rinoa's boots fall unsteadily on the linoleum floor. Standing to one side, Deling straightens his tie and gives Rinoa curious sideways glances. It occurs to Rinoa to shove him over the railing, but her head is forced towards the sorceress, and her limbs won't move towards him. (I'm not usually such a violent person…I don't understand…)

The unseen strings guiding Rinoa's limbs slacken. She dangles by the pull on her head, the rest of her body swaying like a rag doll's. The clear night is ringing with the sound of cheering, shouting. Main Street stretches endlessly out in front of city hall, blockaded several blocks down by army vehicles. Across it, spectators are using the roofs of the cars parked along Ruby Light Avenue as vantage points. A few have dragged lawn chairs onto the sidewalks. The sorceress approaches the podium, rests her arms gracefully on its sides. She began speaking in her alto, Centurian voice,

"…Lowlifes."

The crowd explodes with cheering. Is the sorceress already such a popular public figure? (What kind of joke is she making? She didn't even crack a smile.)

"Shameless filthy wretches."

(That's going too far. Who is this?)

"How you celebrate my ascension with such joy. Hailing the very one whom you have condemned for generations. Have you no shame?"

(What is she saying? And why are they still cheering? What is she going to do with me?) Rinoa sways helplessly in front of this black tower of power and charisma and (madness! She's gone mad…)

"What happened to the evil, ruthless sorceress from your fantasies? The cold-blooded tyrant that slaughtered men and destroyed nations?"

The crowd quiets, waiting for the answer. Rinoa's neck is aching from the strain of supporting the rest of her body. The string is pulling her higher, until only her toes touch the ground. (What have I done? Let me leave; someone come get me. Someone come…)

"She stands before your very eyes to become your new ruler."

Cold, deep laughter, echoes off the surrounding buildings, sweeps into the basin below the platform. It penetrates Rinoa's skin and vibrates in her sternum.

"A new era has just begun. This is reality. No one can help you now. Sit back and enjoy the show."

With I final, suspicious glace back at Rinoa, Deling approaches the podium. He takes Edea's hand in his and raises it above his head, like the referee of a boxing match presenting the winner.

(Didn't they hear what she _said_?)

The pair turn to the left, then to the right, soaking up applause and cheering from all sides. Deling puts an arm around Edea's shoulders, which are about at the level of his head, and flashes a smile. Edea remains stony faced. She returns to the microphone.

"Rest assured, you fools. Your time will come. This is only the beginning. Let us start a new reign of terror. I will let you live a fantasy beyond your imagination." Ignoring the renewed uproar from the crowd, Edea spins away from the platform and glides away, her hips lilting from side to side. Deling trots after her, brushing imaginary dust from his jacket. The string on Rinoa's head breaks, and she collapses to her knees, waiting for the strength to come back into her legs. Her whole body shakes.

(I'm alive. What did she want with me?) It occurs to Rinoa that only she could hear the sorceress's morose speech. (I'm the one going mad?) She stands unsteadily, peers over the railing at the cheering crowd. (I can't get down that way.) She turns and follows the sorceress and Deling.

The silver liquid door has turned back into a relief sculpture. Now the only entrance into the building is a wide, white, tiled hallway to her left. The sorceress's voice and Delings echo from inside the hall.

"Edea, you were brilliant. They loved you. Here are the papers."

"Did you know, Vinzer, that in Galbaldia's history she has never had a female president?"

Rinoa steals into the hallway entrance, supporting her weight on one of the white walls. White light shines down in her eyes, making her squint to see the figures ahead, one gray, one black.

"Edea I don't underst-"

"Yes, Vinzer, well that's hardly a revelation."

The curvy, black silhouette turns to the square, gray one. Crouching, Rinoa presses herself against the wall, wills herself to sink into it.

"I-"

"All you understand, Vinzer, is power and money, corruption and peccadillo; how to increase your share of the former two by means of the latter."

Vinzer doesn't answer. Rinoa wonders if Edea silenced him as she did the guard.

"You lack subtlety. In fact, you lack ambition. All you know is this political wasteland, where not even your countrymen see you as you should be. A God among men. Among women."

Black presses toward on gray, presses him to the opposite wall. Where are all the soldiers?

"You have served your purpose Vinzer." The gray figure slumps to his knees. The sorceress steps back, lets the body fall forward. She turns abruptly to Rinoa. Advances on her. Loath to be frozen and controlled again, Rinoa stays still.

"Let us end this ceremony with a sacrifice."

The sorceress reaches a black claw towards her; Rinoa shrinks away and shields her face with an arm. Edea forces her thumb to her face, presses it against her cheek. Though she feels no pain, Rinoa can feel warm blood trickling from the sorceress's finger, splattering on her bare shoulder.

Quistis: Selphie and Zell took their places at the two control panels for central arc's gates, and I mine at the main controls inside the top of the arc itself almost an hour before the speeches even began. I had plenty of time, sitting in a tiny room with a window overlooking city hall and the mob below it, to reflect on the events of the past week or so.

After Seifer ran away from Garden, my whole world was shaken up. Actually, it probably started when I lost my instructor's license. I tried talking to Squall about it. Somewhere in a dark, repressed corner of my mind I imagined he might sympathize, console me, and maybe make love to me in an empty dormitory, my position as his instructor no longer an issue. I was hurt, if not at all surprised when he brushed me off.

I'd assumed Squall was interested in the girl we'd seen around garden – "Ellone" according to the headmaster – Cid's sister's cousin once removed or something along those lines, though I'd never known Squall to take an interest in any particular girl before. I saw Ellone once in a while on campus, always alone, coming back from the library with an armful of books or running on a treadmill in the gym. She usually carried a green shawl.

And then a few days of chaos – following Seifer to Timber, taking Rinoa from Timber to G-Garden, and now, being sent to Deling City. That's the part that really didn't add up – why Garden would assign three novice SeeDs and myself to escort Rinoa home, and assassinate the sorceress while we were there, like picking up the dry cleaning.

It's true that SeeDs are taught never to question their mission. But we do. When one overpowers and kills people, destroy families, change the flow of historical events, anyone with awareness or intelligence or empathy always has to wonder why. And SeeDs are educated, if not always intelligent. We are taught from childhood to think critically, to use our resources, to problem solve…to notice detail. Rings of coffee on the dashboard of the control panel in that tiny, dank, room. Dirt on the glass of the window. A pale imprint on the wall where there had been a piece of furniture. I wonder how they'd gotten it out, or gotten it there in the first place, the top of central arc being 3000 feet off the ground. I'd had to climb an enclosed ladder on one side and walk across the top of it.

Maybe that's why I noticed Rinoa so much. And analyzed her. I felt much older than she, and obliged to look after her. I can see how one could dislike her – immature, obstinate, often single-minded, and born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth. But Squall didn't, and I didn't either, despite having to watch them dance together, being left to play referee between Zell and Irvine the previous day, and hearing repeated accounts of Rinoa's incredible speed at learning to cast and prodigious compatibility with her avatar, from _Squall_. Silent, withdrawn Squall, so excited over the discovery of these talents in a civilian.

I killed time with a copy of _Deling City in the New Millennium, _an effusive, long-winded history recommended by the general for my personal enrichment:

_Deling City, the first "fabricated capital", was designed by President Casimir Deling, father of the current president Vinzer Deling, to resemble the cultured, architecturally artistic cities of his childhood in the Galbaldian northern peninsula. Despite the grandeur of its renowned central arc, the beauty of the city temple, and the quaint shops and restaurants along Main Street, the city falls short of the effortless beauty of 20th century Dollet, Curiel, and Hana Lumina._

_The seat of conservative power in the Republic of Galbaldia is the site of blah blah blah…_

Boring. I put the book away. The crowd outside had become so thick that it spilled over the metal barriers set up to clear space for the parade. Despite the squalid state of the control room, I felt sort of privileged to have such an excellent view. I could see the speaking platform below, before the backdrop of the legs of holographic jugglers and clowns.

President Deling came out to enthusiastic cheers from the crowd, raised his arms in acknowledgement. I thought that Deling city really must be the seat of conservative power in the Republic; most of Galbaldia hated Deling's guts, even those that supported Casimir Deling. How could Rinoa have become such a passionate liberal growing up here? Garden is a politically neutral organization, and like leaves of a tree, most SeeDs are as well, or at least we appear so in professional situations. But we still understand the significance of politics as it relates to our jobs, and privately, have our own views.

Deling isn't a rambler; he's an experienced, if not popular, public persona. His speech was short and to-the-point: Behind every successful leader is a loyal second-in-command. The noise from the crowd escalated into a frenzy in response, shouting at the news cameras and jostling to get in front of photographers, knowing that tomorrow, these pictures would be on the front page of every paper in the Republic.

Although Edea's appointment as vice president after Donovan was not entirely unexpected, most political analysts didn't think Deling would have the guts. Edea gave a short acceptance speech about the Galbaldian ideals of peace, prosperity, and equality, and exited in the midst of fanatical applause. Another figure on the speaking platform (a bodyguard?) stayed after the president and sorceress had gone, leaning over the edge of the rail, and then followed the sorceress into the building. I turned away from the window.

I remember wondering where Squall was, if he was standing among the crowd, waiting for the parade to leave. Or maybe he hadn't even left Carraway's house yet. Was Rinoa there too?

I didn't notice, except in retrospect, that the noise level below had increased. The walls rumbled. Now the cheering had turned to screaming. I dove under the control panel and fished out my cellphone, planning to call the general and report the earthquake, but the building started shaking, more and more violently, and I couldn't dial the numbers. I wondered how secure the central arc was, considered looking it up in _Deling City in the New Millennium. _I wondered momentarily if I might die, and if I did whether or not Squall would cry. Then the lights flickered, the shaking stopped, and the room was as it had been.

A thin stream of blood is still flowing freely from a painless, half-moon shaped cut in Rinoa's forehead. It runs down the bridge of her nose and neck, and collects in the hollow of her collarbone. Though the sight of blood frightens her, Rinoa is more collected than she was when the president's body double attacked her. (Maybe I'm getting braver?) She fumbles with the latch of her items pouch, barely aware of screaming outside, finds a topical blood clotting cream and smears it on her forehead with sweaty fingers. Louder screaming, and shouting. Closing the items pouch as she stands, supporting herself on the wall. Then more a loud crash from outside, on the speaking platform, and the floor bounces. She drops the pouch and runs.

The room spins. (Got up too fast…) Behind her the sounds of huge feet slapping on the tile and inhuman hissing echo around the white hall. She turns, stumbles back a few steps, and falls to her knees.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

Rinoa: I was pretty out of it by the time the Iguanas (mascots of the Deling family crest; could they have chosen a less noble animal?) knocked me over. But I do remember trying reaching for my blaster edge, holding it folded in front of me. There were two iguanas, each at least thirty feet long, and my eight inch weapon didn't faze them. Something knocked me sideways and I dropped the blade, rolled twice, and stopped in the corner between the white wall and white floor. My blood left a smeared trail on the ceramic, and the iguanas sniffed at it, and then lapped it off the tiles. I remember trying to cast, and causing a few feeble flames to erupt from the closest iguana's dry scales. That got its attention; it retreated warily while the other one started licking the blood off my shoulder with a cool, tickling tongue. I lay as still as I could, eyes squeezed shut. The other iguana plodded over and licked at my forehead and face.

When they'd cleaned every last bit of blood off of me, they began scratching at my skin, gently at first, like a pawing cat. Then harder, and when they started to draw blood, they licked it off. My skin was burning. I'd pushed them away, only to have them push back through my arms and keep scratching and licking. I remembered fighting geezards with Selphie and forest monsters with Selphie and Squall and realized that I couldn't do it this time. I felt naked, helpless, and at the mercy of monsters that would keep licking and scratching until I died of blood loss…

Leviathan started whispering to me. He said, in some vague, archaic, way that I had to get up and fight back because, and I remember this exactly, _I was not to be wasted._

Then the blood rushing in my ears drowned out Leviathan. I was all alone again and I curled up and waited to die. One of the iguanas made a warbling, crying noise, and I passed out.

Irvine woke me up, shaking me by the shoulders and thrusting something awful smelling in a tin tube under my nose. He pulled me up to an unsteady sitting position.

"Hey Rinoa, you okay? Okay good just uh…hang on."

I slumped back to the floor when Irvine dropped me, but I watched the fight through half-lidded eyes. Squall had thrown off his jacket, and was slashing wildly at one of the iguanas, making bright red, diagonal cuts in its scaly skin. His fighting, I reflected, was also like a dance. Like Seifers. He brought his gunblade down from overhead, slashing the iguana's flanks, jumped back from a retaliatory swipe of its tail, the whole time driving it further towards the speaking platform outside. The iguana kept trying to run away and hitting the walls, then changing his mind and attacking Squall instead. Irvine, still wearing his trench coat and crooked cowboy hat was jogging down the hallway, turning periodically and jogging backwards to fire at the pursuing second iguana. He missed twice, making me question the validity of his reputation, and then hit it in the shoulder with…a beam of light? I It wasn't until later that I learned it was some kind of plasma, slow enough to penetrate a monster's natural shield.

Squall made quick work of his iguana, backing it against a wall and driving his gunblade into the side of its neck. I closed my eyes at that point, but I could hear shouting, running and then a sickening hiss and the thud of another iguana hitting the floor. When I opened my eyes, Irvine was gesturing awkwardly, like the conductor of a funeral march. Wonderful cool air washed over my sweaty skin and concentrated tingling grew in my forehead, bruises, scratches, scraped knees. My pulse steadied. I hadn't realized it had been pounding. I wondered why I couldn't obey Leviathan.

"Sorry, I'm not such a…" Irvine turned away and mumbled "caster."

Squall re-sheathing his gunblade, came over and gave me a quick once over to see that I had all my limbs. The scratches had closed, and thanks to the quick cure spell, probably wouldn't scar, but my whole left side was smeared with blood.

I sat up, still shaking, and reached for his hand. I wished he would sit down with me, hold me close, or at least stop checking his watch.

"I was scared."

"It's over now. We have about twenty minutes to be on the carousel."

"I was really, really scared." My eyes started to sting. I wondered what was wrong with me. Eager to take on little geezards with Selphie to help me, but helpless left alone. It was shameful. I needed Squall to understand: I couldn't be alone; I was incompetent. Too scared to act.

"I haven't forgotten our contract. Just stay close to me."

I would have liked to take him literally and stay at his side for the rest of the night, but he had Irvine take me to find a bathroom and clean myself up. He went ahead to wait at the carousel. It felt sort of ridiculous to leave the two slaughtered iguanas, one sprawled on the threshold between the speaking platform and tile, the other mashed up against the wall at a gruesome angle. What would Edea's guards think when they found them?

Irvine stood politely facing a wall and talking to Quistis on a fold-up cellphone (It had Garden's yin-yang symbol on it, like the rest of their equipment) while I took off my duster and tank top and wiped off the blood as best I could with brown paper towels and tap water. The mark on my forehead where Edea had touched me, I realized, was shaped like a fingernail indent – a thin half-moon – though I remembered her hands as gloved, velvety black claws. Irvine's phone clicked as he closed it.

"So what were those things?"

I shrugged and turned on cold water to run the stains on my duster under. "Something the sorceress…summoned. Like GFs I guess; I know she brought them." I sounded quiet and defeated, even to myself.

"Nah, avatars don't die; they just change form. Besides, these came to life off of the central arc; avatars, they just appear in their physical-"

"They came off the central arc?"

"Yeah. It was some kind of magic. There will be news reporters climbing those wooden beams to get to them so we should go around this circle-hall thing to get to the carousel. Quistis and Zell have been in contact with the general; some people think it's really powerful magic in the hands of a destructive sorceress, just like Adel."

Despite being tired and frightened, I smiled as I put on my damp shirt. "They'll Galbaldia will never stand for her to be president now. They'll be too scared of her."

"She's going to be vice president, and they probably will. There are already stories circulating about trained monsters, a surprise addition to the parade. Besides …a lot of young adults thing…the whole dark magic thing…that its cool."

I wished I could punch out the mirror. "It's not _cool_! She'll use it to hurt people! She tried to kill me! And she _is_ going to be president because she already killed the president!"

"Hey hey hey, I hear you man. We're still going to try to take her out ton-she knocked off Deling?" I started crying in spite of myself and retreated into a bathroom stall to collect toilet paper to blow my nose. Irvine was very patient. He waited until I'd cried myself into a sort of exhausted calm, and then led me out of the bathroom. I decided Irvine was okay.

"Don't worry. I know this is…crazy. But things are gonna be okay. We'll get you home as soon as this is over. You look pretty wiped out, yeah?" I nodded. "Here, we aren't actually supposed to give these to civilians, but hey, I'm not a SeeD." He took a green pill the size of a hi-potion capsule out of his item pouch. "It's an elixir. It'll do more for those bruises than my crappy cure spell and keep you on your feet better than energy-pro." I bit the top off and drank the bitter, sticky serum inside.

"Does it have side-effects?"

"No, we're just not supposed to give it to people because it's expensive. You know most energy pills on the market these days, energy-pro and Niyla, they all use this stuff, only way diluted. Yup. Galbaldian army too, though they call it…"

I tuned out Irvine and focused on the waves of energy building in my arms, legs, face, ears. I could run, skip, take on the iguanas single handed! Something horrible occurred to me.

"Irvine, there's nothing funny in this…?" He looked more amused than insulted.

"No, this is the worst I have." He produced a flask from his trench coat and offered it to me. I declined. "Suit yourself."

"You can't drink that! You, you're on a job! You have to assassinate someone in like, ten minutes!"

Irvine took a long swig and sighed.

"Yeah. That's why I'm doing it."

Squall is waiting in the top of the carousel, Irvine's sniper rifle in hand. It's a horrible looking thing, almost as tall as Irvine, with a heavy gray base and some kind of two-foot metal rod in front. He takes it silently, walks around the metal, cylindrical structure in the middle of the room, settles himself on the side facing central arc, his hat pulled down over his eyes.

Squall sighs and sits resignedly on a waist high black bench running around the edge of the circular room. Rinoa sits on the opposite side where she can watch Irvine sneak another sip from his flask, but Squall is hidden by the structure in the middle. The dust-coated bench, she realizes, is not actually a bench but a circle of drum-shaped, covered lights, each several feet in diameter.

Rinoa leans back on her hands and kicks her legs out straight in front of her, moving her pointed toes up and down to blow off some of her new-found energy. She feels happy to be alive, but… (So much has changed so fast. Watts and Zone…what will things be like for Timber with the sorceress as president? Will she even be president? Someone will figure out…it's just too strange for Donovan and Deling to disappear in the same month. But…how much influence does the sorceress have in the military. Obviously not much over my father…)

"Rinoa…"

"W-…What?"

"Seifer's alive. He's in the parade with the sorceress."

(He's _what_? That isn't possible…he wouldn't help her. He must not know that she tried to kill me. I have to tell him. But isn't he with Garden? Garden is working against the sorceress. No, he isn't a student anymore…)

"I…may end up killing Seifer."

Rinoa drops her legs, draws her knees up to her chest.

"You're both...prepared, right? That's the kind of world you live in. You've had a lot of emotional training." Rinoa sighs and drops her legs back to the bench. "But...Of course, I'd rather it not happen..."

"……It's all up to Irvine…"

Irvine is taking another stealthy sip of his drink. Rinoa glares at him. As Squall rises, Irvine hastily replaces the flask, his hand shaking. Irvine stares wretchedly up at Squall, the dark circles in his eyes making a sickly contrast to his washed out skin.

"Don't tell me you're getting the jitters." Squall fails miserably at sounding off-hand.

"I can't do it."

"Irvine Kinneas…" he warns.

"I…I can't; I'm sorry. I can't do it. I always freeze like this…I try to act cool, joke around, but I just can't handle the pressure."

Rinoa raises her eyebrows. (So that's what the drinking is about. Can't handle the pressure? Didn't he compete nationally?)

The carousel creaks, and the roof retracts. Cold air pours into the room. Shivering, Rinoa slides off the black bench and onto the floor as the lights creak open and shoot beams into the air, projecting circles in the sky. (The parade finished it's lap of the city…she's going to come through the arch.) The circular floor slides up the pole in the middle until the walls disappear, and sits as if suspended in the air, bright, twisting lights in a circle around the trio, and a circle of holographic clown legs around that.

"Just…forget it. Just shoot."

"No. My bullet…the sorceress…I'll go down in history. I'd change the history of Galbaldia…of the world! It's too much."

(Poor guy, he's still shaking. Squall isn't good at this kind of interpersonal thing…I should step in…I'll give him a chance…C'mon Squall, try to alleviate some pressure; don't add to it by freaking out…)

"Irvine! Just Shoot!" (Good job…)

"I can't do it, dammit!"

An elaborate float, flaked by neat rows of dancers and lined with screaming, flag waving spectators rolls slowly around the corner, heading towards the arc.

"Irvine, calm down. Everyone's waiting on you. I don't care if you miss. Whatever happens, just leave the rest to us. Just think of it as a signal. A sign for us to make out move."

"Just a signal…" He crawls towards the edge of the carousel floor. As the float gets closer, the holographic clowns flicker and disappear, replaced with decorative animals emerging from under the circular floor. Rinoa can hear the grinding gears of the animals circling below them.

"Just a sign." Irvine steadies his rifle between two of the black lights, and turns it carefully to aim at the central arc. Squall taps Rinoa's elbow lightly. She leans down and Squall says quietly,

"When he shoots, you get down and stay down. Irvine is going to take you back to your house. He knows the route, no shortcuts. When you get there, _stay_ there."

The gates around the arc slam shut, enclosing the float. Edea, from here only an hourglass-shaped silhouette, stands up and looks around. Several of the dancers have been shut inside, but none of the security trailing the parade in yellow military trucks bearing Galbaldian flags.

"If he misses you're gonna…"

"I'll be fine."

Irvine licks his lips, leans over the rifle. Time stops for a minute as he shoots. There's a flash of blue on the float, and Irvine and Squall unfreeze. Irvine pulls a plastic pack of baby wipes out of a coat pocket and begins wiping down the rifle. Squall zips up his jacket and tucks the legs of his plants into his boots.

"Wait, what happened? Did he hit her? Did you hit her?"

"Take care of Rinoa." Squall says to Irvine, before vaulting over the edge of the carousel.

"She blocked the shot. You were right. Get down." Rinoa drops to her heels. Finished wiping down the rifle, Irvine picks it up with baby wipes and carries it to the edge of the carousel.

"There's a dumpster down there." The rifle lands with a dull thump. "Perfect drop." He says ironically. "Carraway's guys will get it. Hyne, I can't believe you were right."

"Right about what?" Irvine lowers himself carefully into the middle of the circular floor.

"C'mon, there's a ladder." The ladder leads down through the cylinder the carousel had come up on. The gears spinning the animals make talk impossible for the climb down, but when they reach the bottom (a room full of motionless machinery at the back of the ground floor) Rinoa asks again,

"Irvine, what was I right about? What happened?" Rinoa jogs to keep up with Irvine's quick walk.

"She blocked my shot - blue magic shield with a range like Adel's, just like you said. Quistis told me." Out of the machinery room, into an empty hall. Rinoa walks on her toes to keep her footsteps from echoing around the high ceiling.

"But I was just guessing. It was just a movie I saw…" Across the hall, out the locked door Rinoa had tried to get through earlier in the evening, though it felt like years ago. "Does that mean Squall's gone to…?"

"Yeah, he's on his way to central arc." Irvine stops abruptly at a street corner – Ruby Light Avenue and Telegraph. Home is right, central arc straight ahead of them. "So like…can you get back from here?"

"Where are you going?"

Irvine laughs humorlessly. "To redeem myself. Can you get back?"

"No, I'm coming with you!"

Irvine shakes his head and starts off towards central arc. "Sorry." Rinoa follows at a trot.

"I can help! You need a caster." Irvine stumbles into a jog.

"I know you're good, but you're inexperienced. I mean, you're a great girl; don't do this."

"What?"

"This is…a suicide mission. We…we're trying to kill the sorceress before her security can catch us."

(So that's why Squall has been so serious. Or…more so than usual.)

"Then why are you…pant…going!" Running and talking at the same time is starting to wear Rinoa out. Central arc looms in front of them. Rinoa can make out Squall's outline, fighting another figure…Seifer?

"Because…that's what SeeD is about; we follow orders."

"You aren't a SeeD!" They're close enough now to see Edea, watching the fight calmly from her seat on the float.

Irvine stops suddenly, about a block from the arc. "Rinoa, listen, if you go in there, and live through it, you'll go to prison. Probably for life. This isn't worth risking your life for."

"I already have; I'm a resistance member." Rinoa feels heat rising in her cheeks, though that might be from the jog over. "Hyne, who are you to tell me what's worth it; it's _my_ life."

The gates are surrounded by soldiers, helpless to get inside. (Edea should have gotten local security who'd know their way around.) She runs towards the side entrance to the arc. Glancing up, she sees the two stone iguanas really are gone. (Wow…) Irvine catches up to her, opens the side door with a key stuffed in a breast pocket (How many pockets does that thing have?) she wonders as she follows him up a dark staircase into the center of the arc. (What am I doing?)


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The stairs lead up to a tiny room over-looking city hall, empty except for a stool, control panel, and wrinkled copy of _Deling City in the New Millennium_ thrown into a corner. (_He_ made me read that in 9th grade…I wonder if I'm really going to die…that'd be the second time tonight.) Somehow panic didn't even register.

Irvine led Rinoa hastily, as though hoping to leave her behind, through a tiny passageway to another small room, this one even dirtier. A trapdoor in the dusty floor had already been opened and a rope attached to an iron fed through it.

"Squall, Quistis and Selphie used their sliders already. You take mine." (Selphie is down there? So they don't need a caster…) Irvine tosses her hollow, metal cylinder with a handle. It clips and unclips. "Wait, here." He takes the cylinder from her, clips in to the rope, and adjusts a knob under the handle and tugs on it. It slides jerkily on the rope.

"Hold onto this. Your bodyweight will pull it down. Don't let go."

Rinoa crouches, determinedly grabs the handle, and sits on the edge of the hole in the floor. (Please let this work.) She slides off of the edge and stops with a jerk that almost breaks her white-knuckled grip on the slider. (Slider…silly name…this is really high…I've been in a lot of high places tonight). The slider drags down the rope. She's facing the far wall of the arc. By stretching out a foot, Rinoa manages to touch the wall and spin herself towards the sorceress's float.

Squall and Seifer are fighting hand-to-hand with their gunblades, Seifer holding his in one hand like a fencer and balancing his weight with the other, Squall in a katana stance, parrying Seifer's blows. At the back of the float, a huge, wooden floor with a raised, decorated throne and several low torches, Quistis is on the offensive with Edea. She keeps trying to rush her with her whip. Never having seen Quistis fight hand-to-hand, Rinoa is fascinated with her technique, throwing it above her head like a dancer with a scarf, and then lashing towards Edea, who consistently blocked her and pushed her back, but _without touching her_. Sitting composedly in her chair, she pushed a hand forward and threw Quistis back with some invisible extension of herself. Turning back and forth between the two fights, Selphie periodically heals Squall and Quistis, and tries to cast magic on Edea, though Selphie's lightening and fire stops a few feet from her.

The rope sways and jerks a little. Rinoa looks up to see Irvine climbing hand-over-hand, his legs wrapped around the rope. A few feet from the ground, Rinoa lets go of the slider and lands crouched on the cobblestones. She runs up to the float, climbs onto the edge of the raised floor, and narrowly avoids being stepped on by Seifer, who's retreating. Instinctively, she grabs his ankle and pulls him down. Sadness and guilt and hopelessness wash over her as she realizes that Seifer was going to be dead again. (I dunno if I can handle it a second time.) Seifer falls to one knee, slides off the end of the float, staring up incredulously at Rinoa. Squall jumps down after him, but stops to look up at Rinoa too, giving Seifer a chance to recover and run back from the float. Selphie's moved to stand on the edge of the platform and is throwing offensive spells at Seifer, who's moving too fast to make a good target. She cries out in surprise when she sees Rinoa, but helps her up onto the float.

"What are you doing here!"

"Helping. Quistis is in trouble."

Quistis had given up trying to attack Edea and fallen back, throwing spells at her. She was no match for Edea in magic though, and Edea's thunder spell had knocked her back into one of the torches, which was now burning on its side. Selphie quickly cast a curative spell on her. The thunder had been different from the thunder spell Rinoa knew. Instead of stretching between Quistis and Edea, the spell had appeared above Quistis as a shower of sparks. Quistis struggles to her feet.

"I've got Squall, help Quistis." Selphie looks surprised, but obeys and turns to the fight with Edea, who still hasn't risen from her chair. Outside the arc, guards and spectators are screaming and shouting. The dancers trapped inside the gate with Edea's float have gathered in a huddle in a corner of the cage made by the arc and gates.

Rinoa turns to Seifer and Squall. Seifer has climbed about twenty feet of the rope, and is sawing at it with his gunblade, trying to drop Squall, who's still near the bottom. Above him, Irvine is climbing back up the rope. His hat falls and floats towards the ground. (C'mon Irvine, cut the rope!) But he's already climbing back through the trapdoor. Seifer reaches the top and follows him into the arc, while Squall throws spells at him helplessly. He drops to his heels slaps his palms to his forehead. Rinoa turns back to Edea.

The sorceress hasn't attacked them yet except to keep them away, waiting perhaps for her guards to get inside. Rinoa unclips her Blaster edge and unfolds it. It snaps into a full circle. She quickly opens out its base and snaps it onto her forearm, sets the Blaster edge onto it.

Selphie and Quistis are both throwing spells at Edea, who's finally risen to her feet. Selphie is casting spells Rinoa's never seen before. She draws back both hands and throws them forwards as if to push something heavy. Ice bursts from her fingers, encircles Edea's torso. With a wave of Edea's hand the ice falls away. Quistis, a less experienced caster, is using spells Rinoa's done herself, mostly protective and curative.

Rinoa holds her arm up towards Edea, pulls a latch in the middle of her blaster edge. The steel disc spins off of her arm towards the sorceress, who stops it mid-flight with a raised hand, then flicks a wrist. Rinoa's muscles freeze up, though this time she isn't surprised. Her blaster edge clatters to the ground and spins on its edge before falling flat. Selphie is fishing around in her item pouch for something – a white ball? She jogs over to Rinoa, forces the ping-pong sized ball between her barely parted lips.

"It's a soft" she explains in a rush. "Just let it melt." She stands in front of Rinoa like a shield. (Why doesn't Edea just freeze us all at once and kill us? Or control us like she did with me in City Hall?) As the soft melts and trickles down her throat, Rinoa feels her muscles warm and relax. (All these SeeD cures…they must go right to your blood stream somehow. Do they penetrate through the skin like a potion?).

By the time Rinoa has control of her muscles again, Squall has climbed onto the float platform. He draws his gunblade and takes a combat stance next to Rinoa and Selphie.

"Get out of here, you could be killed."

_Stand your ground and fight_.

"Rinoa, go!"

_Stand your ground_.

"Rinoa! Stand down!"

_Stand_…

"I'm staying!" She says heatedly, her voice breaking. She turns back to Edea. She's gliding towards them, hands at her sides. Quistis has given up trying to attack her with her whip, and Selphie her futile casting She tries to rush Edea with her nunchaku drawn. Without turning, Edea holds up a hand and Selphie stumbles backwards into the throne.

"A SeeD. Planted in a run down garden." Edea's voice is as calm and colorless as ever. "Accursed SeeDs." Squall brings his gunblade down overhead, meets Edea's blue shield. "Impudent _SeeDs_." She thrusts a hand towards Squall and turns her wrist, closing her fingers into a fist. Squall drops to his knees in agony.

"Stop!" Rinoa screams and throws herself on Edea, taking her by surprise and knocking her backwards. She quickly recovers herself and flings Rinoa to the ground with a flip of her free wrist. Landing on her side, she struggles to her feet again, her elbow and hip badly bruised. Squall, too is back on his feet. Trying a new tack, he swings his gunblade in a circle behind him and rushes Edea with a palm outstretched. The sorceress, breathing heavily now, bends her knees to lean her body weight into a shield of magic, struggles to keep Squall from coming any closer.

From further back on the float, Selphie and Quistis are casting cure and defensive spells on Rinoa and Squall. Squall and Edea are locked in an impasse, each pouring their energy into charging and blocking the other. (What do I do? What now? Leviathan, talk to me!) Leviathan doesn't answer. The fallen torch, still burning over Edea's shoulder, reminds Rinoa of the resources available to her now. She casts a fire spell, and Edea doubles over as heat builds around her. The feathers on the collar of her dress smolder and ignite. She presses a palm to her neck to extinguish the flame, giving Squall time to rush at her again. Edea holds a hand out defensively, and ice pours from it like Selphie's, hardens into spear shaped shards and drives into Squall.

In the same moment that the ice pierces Squall's chest, the gates creak and begin to rise. Someone's gotten through the side entrance to the controls. Soldiers pour inside. Rinoa watches in slow motion as Squall stumbles backwards, the ice spear protruding from his chest at an angle. He staggers, steadies himself, and drops backwards towards the edge of the float. Rinoa runs after him, crouching to try to catch him, but he's already falling gently to the ground. Rinoa reaches down. Someone is screaming.

Then the soldiers are all over the float. Selphie and Quistis give themselves up quietly. Rinoa's first instinct is to bolt, but she's frozen to the spot, and in moment two soldiers are on her. One knocks her to the ground, holds his short sword to her throat. (Squall is already dead?) The other guard is cuffing her wrists roughly in front of her, reciting her rights. Out of the corner of her eye, Rinoa sees Quistis throw her cell phone the ground with such force that it smashed into pieces. (What!) Shouting ensues. Squall and Selphie follow her example, and Selphie casts lighting spells on the broken phones in rapid succession until one of the guards forces a white rag over her mouth and nose, and she collapses into his arms.

Irvine: Though I gave a more elaborate version later, this is what really happened. I was halfway down the rope when Edea's blonde bodyguard jumped onto it, running from Squall. He climbed up a few feet, gave Squall a good kick in the head that made him stumble back, climbed a few feet higher. I tried to reach for my gun, but I was using both hands to stay on the rope. I started climbing back up so I could get a seat inside the arc and either shoot him or cut the rope. The casually dressed guard had the same idea, but he could hold his weight with one hand, and cut the rope with his sword. Poor Squall fell about six feet and rolled.

I got to the top first, climbed out, and started to close the trapdoor, but he got out. I backed away and took a shot at him while he was half way through the door, but he held the flat of his sword over his face, and I only managed to singe his hair. The blade turned from silver to glowing orange in the middle.

I think he must have cast blind on me while I was shooting. Realizing he would kill me before I could get to m eye drops, I started running back to the control room, turning and firing shots blindly. I felt the door to the passageway behind me, slammed it shut and felt for the locking button. The bodyguard pounded on the door while I fished around for the eye drops (they're supposed to have such a distinctive shape that they're easy to locate blind, bullshit) and dropped them into my right eye just in time to have the damned giant bodyguard ram through the flimsy door with a shoulder. Seeing out of one eye, I turned and fired several shots at him.

On unprotected, human skin, a plasma shot at point-blank range should leave a nasty, painful burn comparable to a high-level fire spell. My first shot burned through his trenchcoat and barely fazed him, though I never saw him cast protective magic. I threw myself down the stairs, leaping down them several at a time and almost twisting an ankle at one point. That part in particular, I omitted in my reports to Squall and Garden. There were several Galdaldian guards, locals in green uniforms, not the sorceress's personal guard, standing outside the side entrance to the arc. I was just deciding which would be worse – a gang of lightly armed soldiers or the blonde bodyguard with the giant sword, when I realized the blonde wasn't chasing me. Maybe he'd given up and gone back to help Edea, assuming I'd be stopped by local law enforcement? I fished out my last bottle of eyedrops, having dropped the first one somewhere upstairs, and fixed my other eye. I blinked as my vision started coming back. If I ran out the side-door I'd be easy to identify as part of the attack. If I went back upstairs there was the chance of meeting the bodyguard, and the Deling city police would find me anyway.

I went upstairs. Sure enough, he'd gone back through the trapdoor, though it must have been a long way to the ground with a third of the rope cut off. I found my first bottle of eyedrops, closed the door to the stairwell, and propped in shut with a stool. Now, to get out. I remembered diagrams of the arc from the general's strategy meetings, but I've never been good at that stuff; guns and women, those are my areas of expertise. Leave that shit to the architects. I thought I could climb out the window overlooking City Hall, but there were two stories of smooth wall under it.

I ended up going through the sewers, which was disgusting. In the back of the trapdoor room is a crawl space leading to a ladder that goes down the other side of the arc. It leads to a storage room, locked from the inside, connecting to the control room where Zell had been stationed. A copy of Combat King magazine with a picture of a muscly, shirtless blonde kicking a punching bag on the cover was open on the floor. Zell's exit, unlike Quistis and Selphie's, would have led him outside the arc. He probably couldn't fight his way through the crowd. Or maybe he'd been seen coming out of the arc? The general couldn't have known that his post was connected to Quistis's, or he'd have had Zell use the path I'd just taken.

A short ladder outside the control room led to a wire fence covered with tarps. I guess some kind of construction was going on; there were piles of bricks in the corners of the fence. Unless civilians had started using military codes, there were soldiers watching this, and probably every other entrance to the arc. I couldn't climb the fence and run, because they would catch me. Instead, I went through a sewer grate.

The sewers were lined with think cement paths, probably for maintenance workers, with murky, brown water flowing between them. The smell was too awful for words. Kind of like an outdoor public toilet that hasn't been cleaned in years, but _everywhere_. I was tempted to climb the first ladder I saw, just to get away from it, but it creaked and wobbled, threatening to fall away from the wall if I put my weight on it. I buttoned the top of my coat over my mouth and nose and breathed shallowly through my mouth, through several blocks worth of sewers. Periodically red bats – tiny, urban bats that were presumably living off human sewage – would fly out of some moldy corner or crack in the ceiling. Like all monsters, they were somewhat aggressive, but a plasma shot at one of them would send the rest scattering. The next ladder led to a grate in some public place, I could hear voices above it and feet thumped rhythmically across it – people walking. The next _two _were a little quieter, but they must have been in the middle of a street. Cars zoomed noisily over them a few times each minute, and I wasn't willing to risk being run over, even to get out of the sewer.

Eventually, I found a quiet grate that opened into an alleyway Hyne-knows where or how far from central arc and city hall. I climbed out and walked a few blocks to find myself in a brightly lit street. Everyone gave me a wide berth until I found a little perfume shop with free samples and surreptitiously doused myself in "Mystery" by Shorla Babcock. After that I got strange looks, and I felt naked without my hat. It was a miserable walk back to Carraway's mansion, but I got there eventually by following Telegraph until I got away fro the shopping arcade and into a residential area.

I didn't look forward to telling the general that his daughter that his daughter had been arrested because I'd allowed her to follow me, or that I had missed the sorceress. Not that it was my fault. But he took it much more calmly than I'd thought.

"I know, it's all over the news. It isn't your fault; if I can't control I can't expect you to." the general sighed and rested his palms over his eyes. "My career is over. I need to leave immediately." He stood up abruptly. "Pack whatever you brought with you; take anything you need." We're leaving in ten minutes. He called his chauffer from a household telephone in his office, and within five minutes we were driving towards the city limits

The SeeDs, as a matter of precaution, would have a cover story to protect their client (not to mention garden) in case they were caught. Not being part of the mission, Rinoa doesn't know what it was, so when uniformed men ask her questions, she answers only in Chali, with hysterical tears and pleading. When it becomes clear that none of them understand, she answers insolently, but with an earnest tone.

"What's your name?"

"You could afford to drop a few pounds."

"I said what… is …your… name." The soldier enunciates carefully and speaks slowly.

"I don't understand, fat pig man."

"Who are you working for?"

Rinoa tells him to do the unmentionable with the blade he holds deliberately visible at his side. When the novelty of insulting the guards wears off, she drops her face into her hands, her body racked with fake sobs until the police cars reach Deling City jail.

Selphie, Quistis and Rinoa share a cell with two other women, while Squall is taken, presumably to a hospital, in another car and Zell is lead to another section of the jailhouse. A girl of about twenty with pale skin and dark hair and eye make-up introduces herself as Rhyla. The other, Cheyenne, has dark skin and clothing, and a nose ring. She says little, and is unintelligible when she does speak. The cell is small, equipped with four, blanket-less cots on bunk beds and a moldy-smelling wooden bench. Quistis sits tentatively on the edge of a cot. Cheyenne and Selphie start a game of triple triad on a board scratched into the wooden bench with Cheyenne's battered deck. Rhyla coaches Selphie in a twangy, street accent. "No no no, dis'un here." pointing to a card. Quistis shakes her head unhappily,

"Amazing. We could be dead in a week and she has the energy to play cards."

"Don't worry; I'm sure garden will back you all up. If anyone's going to be executed …it'll probably be me." Rinoa swallows hard with the realization.

Quistis lowers her voice further, "not unless they can trace the attack back to your father. If it's classified as an independent action…well he'll still have his influence in the military. He'll get you out." Quistis puts a comforting arm over Rinoa's shoulders. "Good job, speaking that Estharian language. Just remember, we're working for clients of garden, not for garden directly. The sorceress must not trace the attack to the garden circuit."

"Hey! Ladies!" Rhyla's grating voice interrupts, "what are y'all in for?"

"Street-walking." Quistis answers quickly, in a decent imitation of Rhyla's accent.

"Yeah, right. Y'all's hookers, fine." Rhyla turns away in disgust, gathers up her cards. The others go to bed, Rinoa curled up at the foot of Quistis's cot. Cheyenne sits smoking pensively on the edge of her cot. Irvine's elixir pill is wearing off, and she drifts off to sleep to the smell of cigarettes and the rhythm of Rhyda's accent as she bantered with the guards, with a picture of Squall's pale face falling backwards off the float in her mind.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

In the morning, they are escorted out of the cell by Galbaldian soldiers in the local green uniforms. Rinoa feels uncomfortably exposed being led between the rows of inmates with no HS shield, no weapon, and her wallet and items pouch in custody. (I hate feeling so helpless. If I'm separated from the others, I'll be completely defenseless).

An hour's drive later, Rinoa, Quistis, Selphie and Zell are led onto another train, hands cuffed behind their backs, with one escorting guard each. (They don't know I'm not a SeeD…they think I need my own guard.) Instead of entering at the side doorways, they go through the back door to a plain, tin-walled compartment. Selphie's face falls when she sees that there are only two doors, and no windows. Two green-clad soldiers stand on either side of the door connecting the tin room to the rest of the train.

Zell leans against a wall and slides to the ground. Quistis and Rinoa seat themselves as comfortably as possible with their hands behind their backs, but Selphie stays standing, eyes closed. Rinoa looks up curiously, but the other two seem disinterested. One soldier, then the other, slumps limply against the door frame. They lie on the floor, limbs sprawled at awkward angles.

Rinoa jumps up, eyes wide, backs away from the dead bodies. (Well…I guess we're already being tried for murder, but that was so heartless.)

"Why did you kill them? What's wrong with you!"

"They aren't dead, sit down Rinoa" says Quistis soothingly. Selphie kneels, for once looking tired. "She put them to sleep." The guards are, indeed, breathing steadily.

"She cast…you cast sleep on them without using your hands."

"Yeah. You'll learn to do it soon enough, but it's really ineffective." To prove her point, one of the soldiers stirs in his sleep and shifts position.

Rinoa sits back, suddenly exhausted. (I'm going to die. Probably going to die. I feel…alive enough…I won't die. The SeeDs will protect me…Squall.)

Squall's face swims in her minds eye. Pale skin glowing orange in torch-light. Glassy, blue-eyed. A trickle of brown blood on his gray fur collar. She wipes her nose on her knit arm warmer – the clothes are filthy anyway. (Squall…you're dead too aren't you? I felt…like this when Seifer died…but he came back.)

Rinoa tucks her head between her knees and rocks back and forth. (Why do people have to die for this woman? Squall…and soon Quistis and Zell and Selphie. I guess they've been prepared for it most of their lives. But I'm not. I don't want to die yet).

Rinoa: When I was a little kid, I remember I felt like nothing could hurt me if my dad was around. My mom too, but after she died I got even more attached to my dad. That was before he decided he couldn't be a dad. He's a big guy, over 6', and I always thought he could fight off the monsters on T.V. or the bad guys in stories.

It wasn't until several years later that I realized dad couldn't even reign in his own daughter, but I wasn't emotionally damaged or anything. The teachers at Timber Academy became my parental figures, and I could always count on Shiro, Kemy, my friends at school, and later Watts, Zone, Bill, everyone.

Things had been crazy for a few weeks, but looking back, I'd had a great life. I'd seen a lot of the world – two continents total – and learned three languages. And one of us was already gone. I wondered if he felt short-changed by life; if he felt bitter in the last few seconds before he hit the ground. I started crying again, even though I'd promised myself I wouldn't.

I'd figured that, like me, Selphie and Quistis hadn't talked about Squall because it was too painful. In fact, they hadn't talked about it because they were too worried. Selphie put my head on her shoulder and rocked me back and forth and said she was sure my father would be able to get me out. Zell traced a circle on the ground in my blurry field of vision. I couldn't explain to her that it wasn't my life so much as the futility of everything…the wasted lives. I was got very existential.

"Even if I l-live through it, w-what kind of life will I be able t-t-to have? Life in p-prison. B-Better that I'd d-d-died too!"

Quistis spoke up, "Too? We aren't sure anyone's going to be executed yet…"

"N-No, but Squall…Squall's…"

"He should be okay!" Selphie said quickly.

"Yeah, they got to him right away; I'm sure he'll be fine." Said Zell

Clearly they hadn't seen his face when he fell off the float with a spear of ice in his chest. I remembered the glassy eyes again, this time with bloodshot whites and half-fallen lids I might have been imagining I remembered.

Selphie was talking again. "Field medicine has improved sooo much in the last 50 years, and the soldiers got to him practically before he hit the ground."

"I saw him on a stretcher, no white sheet." Zell volunteered.

That made me cry harder.

My view on our situation was much different after finding out that Squall was alive. Instead of mourning how we were going to die, I started thinking of ways we might live. The door to the train was locked from the inside, but even we could have broken through it somehow, jumping from a moving train probably wasn't a way we might live. This didn't stop Zell from trying to pick the lock with the aglets of his shoelaces and kicking the hinges to break them. Selphie had to put the soldiers back to sleep periodically, and we all drew all the magical energy they'd stored and tried all the keys on their belts until we found the ones to open our handcuffs (though trying to unlock the first pair reminded me of teamwork games from summer camp where teams have to cross a field standing on only a certain number of feet, or pass an orange around a circle using only their chins).

When the train stopped, we half closed the handcuffs and held our wrists behind our backs. Zell "gently" woke the soldiers, and haggled 500 gil out of them in exchange for our silence about them falling asleep on duty.

We were ushered into another car, blindfolded (if you've never ridden along a windy road blind, you cannot imagine how unpleasant it is) and driven for what seemed like hours to our home for the few weeks: D-District Prison.

The prison has three divisions: minimum and maximum security, and maintenance and medical facilities building. Maximum security is also called "helvete", as Rinoa quickly learns on their arrival. An authoritative, female voice with a heavy eastern accent:

"Welcome to helvete, ladies. Oh, and gentleman."

After the hot, dry car ride, being indoors is heaven. Now the air circulation system makes wherever they are cold, dry and noisy.

"In a minute your restraints," (Restraints? The handcuffs?) "and blindfolds will be removed. If you run, if you cast, if you talk to each other, we will shoot you."

The threat sounded strange; borrowed from a historical drama about another time. But the lightness at Rinoa's hip reminds her of the absence of her HS shield. Gloved hands grabbed her wrist, pulled off the loose cuffs, and slid her blindfold over her forehead with an efficient tug. Light flooded Rinoa's eyes. Beside her, Selphie was covering hers with her palms. Rinoa squinted at the floor – smooth cement – as the female voice continued without comment on the open handcuffs, though she must have seen them.

"I don't tolerate any bullshit. Judging from your backgrounds, SeeDs, you have some practice in following orders? Use it. You're gonna be here a while. It's in your best interests not to piss me off. My name is Mechtilde Hildegarde."

Zell snorts, then coughs, but too late. A guard in blue cuffs him on the head with what looks like a tiny, dense baseball bat and he drops to his knees.

"But you can call me ma'am. Raise your hand if you can read."

Hildegarde proceeds to read the rules of prison conduct to the SeeDs, and gives them each a condensed, one page copy. The edges of each piece of paper are wrinkled, as though dipped in water and then dried. No sharp edges.

"This is a maximum security facility, meaning no contraband, period. Your guardian forces will be removed next week; the specialists we use are currently unavailable. In the meantime you will be under observation 24/7. Any attempt to cast magic will land you in isolation, and will not delay your meetings with Mister Almasy."

"Almasy!"

The SeeDs are similarly surprised; Zell quickly gets to his feet.

"You've heard of him. Good news travels fast I suppose." Rinoa thinks she detects irony, especially when Hildegarde says "Good news".

"The Sorceress Edea's personal bodyguard. He's taken a special interest in your case…for obvious reasons."

(Personal bodyguard…that's right. He's Edea's…knight?)

The next few days are marked by food and sleep, the most exciting events at D-District Prison. Rinoa keeps track of them with her loose-fitting, orange clothes, making a tiny tear in the ankle every time the bell rings for lights out.

Because there are no windows in the SeeDs shared cell, a cement floored room the size of a small bedroom with a plastic-curtain-hidden toilet and two sets of cots on bunk beds, like in Deling City Jail, no one knows at what time the morning bell rings for them to get up, accompanied by a blue-clad guard banging a small, baseball bat shaped club (a "Grendel stick") along the bars of the cell. Then breakfast, brought by moomba's – furry orange animals of great intelligence - bearing trays: diluted juice or water and oatmeal with mushy grapes, and once, canned peaches swimming in peach-flavored goo. All the dishes are plastic, including the spoons. No forks. Then showers – girls to the left, Zell to the right. The bathrooms have mold in the corners and the shower water is either boiling or ice cold, but it feels good to scrub away what feels like years worth of dirt, and see bruises and scratches start to heal. Then calisthenics for Zell – dips pull-ups on the edge of the bunk beds, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks. Quistis stretches, and sometimes she and Selphie meditate together, even though they can't cast with the tiny camera in the corner of the room trained on them at all times. Rinoa is impressed with their commitment to exercise and routine, considering the circumstances, but knowing they all survived, that Squall was not dead yet, cheers her up as well.

Then magic lessons. No casting, but Rinoa and Selphie can sit cross-legged pretending to meditate and draw magic energy back and forth. Rinoa learns some group exercises that Quistis, and sometimes Zell participate in. "Train" involves passing magic energy around a circle, each person drawing it from the next, without completely assimilating it into his body. Rinoa is almost as good as Selphie when she begins, and with Quistis and Zell playing they manage to move energy around the circle five times without anyone breaking concentration. When Selphie and Rinoa play, they can pass energy back and forth 427 times, thus far, without getting tired. By the end of a week, Rinoa can name the magical elements and branches of magic, hold magical energy in different parts of her body ("My teacher at Trabia garden used to have us try to cast with our legs or hips instead of our hands."), and communicate with Leviathan almost at will.

To talk to him, Rinoa speaks to herself as though reading a book in her head. Leviathan talks back, mostly at night when she lies awake, listening to the whir of the air circulation system, footsteps and chatter down the hall, and feels the invisible eye of the camera on her, hidden in the dark. As she gets used to his archaic speech, Rinoa begins to think of "Levi" as a friend who's always with her, rather than a strange, foreign presence in her mind. Instead of one-way communications, she now had conversations with her avatar.

(What do you look like; your physical manifestation?)

_When I come to you, I appear as you._

(Alright…well…are you an elemental?)

_A water snake._

(So your physical manifestation is a snake?)

Silence.

(What did you do before I junctioned you? Did you live in that Wendigo? Did you junction with it?)

_I am the guardian of the dragon goddess._

Rinoa sighs, sits up. It's late at night, at least several hours after lights out. Assuming the lights go out in the evening. She sits up, leans over the side of the side of her top bunk bed. The red eye of the camera blinks menacingly in the dark.

"Zell!"

Silence from the bunk below.

"Zell, wake up!" Bending double over the bunk bed, she shakes Zell's shoulder.

Despite his occasional childishness, Zell is a soldier, and a light sleeper. She gives his limp body a sharp shake, and he slips partway off the cot.

"Zell's unconscious! Selphie, Quistis! Something's wrong with Zell!"

Quistis is at their bedside in a moment, checking Zell's pulse and forehead in the dark. Selphie shuffles sleepily behind her. The bed creaks as Rinoa slides to the floor.

"He's breathing." Quistis reports.

"You guys…"

Rinoa interrupts "It's so shallow though; what's wrong with him?"

"Guys, I-"

"Should we make noise? Does he need a doctor?"

"No, he's-"

"Yes. Selphie, can you go bang on the bars?"

"No, I…"

"It's okay, I'll go."

"No! You guys, I think he's gone to the 'dream world'."

"Where?"

"It's just…it's what we called the dream we all had…with Sir Laguna."

"Why do you think that?"

"I just had one too…"

Laguna, Kiros and Ward had been stationed in Esthar, according to Selphie and Quistis, in a strange, crystal structure inside a machinery lined box.

"In a what!"

"It was like some kind of strange…mining site. In the middle of a forest. They were being pursued – by Estharian soldiers."

(Maybe this is something that happens to SeeDs. Irvine and I have never been to the "dreamworld"…)

"Before I woke up, Ward was injured and taken onto a Galbaldian vessel…"

"Yeah, I remember, we all jumped over a cliff into the water."

(I'm so lost.)

"So what happened to Kiros?"

"He recovered in a few months from the fight…on that cliff…"

Theories involving brain implants and SeeD-based conspiracies…

"Then in the dream I just had, he found Sir Laguna in this little Galbaldian country town, Winhill. He was living there with a little girl named Ellone and her mom, Raine."

"Didn't he want to become a journalist?"

(I feel kind of…left out.)

"Yeah, he was recovering in Winhill and just kind of stayed on afterwards, keeping monsters out of the village."

Zell stirs.

"I think he's waking up."

A/N: I have only sketchy second hand accounts of what jail is like. This is what prison is like in this fantasy world, okay? Also, the Laguna story isn't well-described because Rinoa doesn't participate in it. Since you've played the game before, you know what happens. No need for me to repeat it. Trivia: Hildegarde means "battle enclosure" in German. All the characters in this story, minus Eddie, have unusual names, in imitation of the game. Thanks for reading and please review! Devil May Care


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